A Path of Leaves
by Leaf and Quill
Summary: It's been twenty years since the Millenium Earl has been vanquished. All's not well with the world, however, and the Akuma still mysteriously appear. What's going on?
1. Chapter 1

_They say that fate can come in odd ways._

_Like, if you've been announced as a destructive force, you might be a savior, too._

_My teacher once said that he is a destroyer that wants to save others._

_I want to be like that, too._

--

The streets were wet with the recent rain. Despite the hill, puddles lined the cobbled roads, splashing as my worn traveling boots planted itself in its centers. Slipping was as easy as falling off a log, especially with me, so above the din of concentration I didn't hear the clatter of hooves behind me until the driver called out. By then, I was leaning heavily on my staff, as if it was a cane. Which it kind of was.

"Hey, you need some help in getting up there, mister?" the man called out to my huffing form.

I looked up to see a dry, well-kept person sitting on a cart, two horses close enough to run me over if they had it in mind. In surprise, I lost my already wobbly footing and fell spectacularly. "Oww… that wasn't nice at all…" I groaned.

"I'd say," laughed the driver. "Come in and I'll get you up."

"No thanks," I said. "It's kind of you to offer, but it's healthier for me to stay on my feet," I added in respect, bowing as soon as I pulled myself up with the help of my staff. Starting to walk again, I kept moving while the man slowed to talk a bit.

"By the way, what business do you have in that area, anyway? Not a lot of people walk in any more, I've heard."

"Actually, it's because of that issue. I hope to clear the area so that it can live again."

"Are you a Father of the church?" he asked, cocking his head. "There are demons afoot, then?" he added in a quivery voice.

"Not really. I just happened to pass by," I said, running into a deeper collection of rain, shoes splashing the water. The hem of my deep emerald traveling cloak got wet, but the clearing sky didn't soak me any more. "Well, I guess I'll see you around." I waved with my free hand as I turned towards the forked path, not even bothering to see if he saw the gesture; I was so concentrated on keeping myself out of mud-laced water. Slapping the butt of my staff in another puddle, I watched the ripples pass into the stone, walking my way into the town of Reverie.

_Proper name,_ I thought, looking around at the quiet, dreary houses. What people stayed I could see were now tainted by fear. Their faces were dull and twitchy, heads always turning to look at their backs. Neighbors feared to meet each other's faces. The situation was really…pitying.

"_Why can't I play with my friends anymore, Mother?"_

I shook my head, drawing a few stares for the weakening gesture.

There wasn't a problem in searching for an inn to leave my things at; every room was empty. I chose one by the entrance of the town and asked a little girl inside for a room. At first she squeaked and ran under the table, but after some coaxing she led me into a decent room on the second floor.

The view was sullen, being of the town. Yet I almost could see the beauty that once lived here: a well with people crowding around it, a market of vibrant vegetables. Now, though, I could see nothing. I wanted to change that as soon as possible, and after setting down my suitcase, I turned to leave.

A woman that looked like the older version of the girl, probably the innkeeper, walked in as soon as I reopened the door. "Are you planning to see the doctor for your leg?"

"How did you notice?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Your footsteps were…wrong. And you leaned a little on that staff of yours."

I looked into the woman's eyes. There was, like all the others, fear in there, but open concern also. Living in a town like this, it was a rare treasure to see someone like her. The light inside dispelled any second thoughts I had about going through with this.

"I'll be alright, miss," I said, smiling. "But thank you."

_"Even in the bleakest of existences, there is hope."_

Trudging down into the street, I headed immediately towards the church. From my window I had seen the spiraling steeple in the air, piercing in its gray color and oblong shape. Like everything, it and the entire building was a thing with an aura of sadness around it. The gardens didn't even have weeds in it; the soil was so contaminated with pentacles. But I walked in….and wished I didn't.

A single man lay on the altar, his robes marking him as a real father of the church. There weren't any pentacles around him, and yet a savage cut on the neck sat only half-cleaned on his putrefying body. This priest, a servant of God, was probably killed with _human_ hands, perhaps because of his inability to save his people.

"_Why don't you send them back to Hell, Father? Why leave them to torture us?"_

I pushed the memories away with my auburn locks of hair. Short as it may be, the gesture was a habit spawned by the past days when I once did have a waterfall of gold. It was a relic from the past, and I didn't want to let it go. Not yet, anyway.

The door behind me suddenly creaked open. Turning at the noise, I did a little fidget as the shadow flew down the middle of the floor. As I looked closer, I saw the cart driver standing there, his nice coat swaying with the wind outside. Actually, his too-nice coat. People who could afford clothing like that won't be driving horses in the rain, alone, especially in a haunted area such as the one around Reverie. It didn't make sense. "Sir?" I asked, suddenly feeling rather nervous, leg feeling pins and needles.

"Exorcist," he whistled, the echo like a wave of shivers. "Ruin my trip, didn't you?" I widened my eyes as the man ripped apart, revealing a mass of cannons and guns over a hard sphere nearly five times as large as I might be. Its mask-like face stared at me, turning all the barrels towards my face. Surprise hummed at my brain since the surfaces were all so shiny I saw myself on the cylinders.

I shook my head, shoulders trembling. "I was walking beside a level two Akuma all this time and didn't realize it," I laughed lightly, my voice shaking. "Such an idiot. But you missed something, too," I added.

"What's that, little man?" it asked.

"Exactly that. I'm not male," I said, knocking my staff against the tiled floor with a clapping sound.

"Innocence, activate!"

Light sparked to life at my feet, reaching heavenward by running up the wood in my hand. I watched as the oak blurred into ebony, the inky darkness spreading over the entire staff from bottom up to add an additional spike atop the smooth rod, crystal clear. Ribbons the color of the night sky formed from the flare, wrapping around both of my hands to ensure a tight grip, among other things. Complete, the change's light vanished into the air, leaving the anti-Akuma weapon to me.

"My name is Chris, and I'll free your soul, Akuma," I said, pointing the tip at its tearless eyes.

"Ooh, I'm so scared. But unless you can run, which I doubt with your leg," it sneered, "You're the one who's going to have a freed soul."

"But with you around, I _can _run." With that, I used the strength of both legs and gained a running start, tossing my staff like a javelin and spearing it right in the center of its face. A cry of many emotions was ripped from its throat as it painfully pulled the hooked tip from its flesh, the wound not serious enough to have it crash down yet. "How did you…?"

"I don't know either," I replied, planting my wrapped hands onto the stone floor. "But I like running and jumping without pain and collapse, which are incentives to help beings like you."

My staff, thrown away somewhere in the pews, vanished into the rock. It rose into my hand like a fast-growing tree as I drew it from the scabbard of earth, fully ready to help its accommodator once more. "So I'm going to hop around a bit to celebrate, do you mind?" With that, I leapt high enough to graze the ceiling and crashed down on the multitude of weapons, bending quite a few.

"How dare you!" it screeched, tossing me off. I landed nimbly on a wooden seat, the planks creaking with disuse as I forced my weight on them.

"Why are you so carefree with a _level two_ Akuma facing you off?" it demanded, firing giant bullets into my area. Smoke blinded me for a second while I crawled under the boards. I swore softly as the blasting sound got closer.

"Why are you making fun of a being that can crush you like a bug?" Bullets sunk holes in the floor inches away.

"Why are you so confident a single exorcist can bring me down?!"

"Because then I know that Reverie can be free of the Akuma that's using them as snacks in between fights," I hissed, leaping from my hiding spot to thrust a final blow point blank as the bullets ate into my hiding spot. Shrapnel flew as I deflected the black blizzard of ammunition, the metal ricocheting off the anti-Akuma weapon as I swung it in fast circles to make a light shield. Soon close enough to guarantee a hit, I swung a final arc and plunged the sharp end deep inside the body so that only a foot or so stuck out.

"Give rest to this poor soul and return it to the skies; Heaven's Leaves: winter!" I cried, unraveling my hand ribbons in a fluid motion. Using them like a conductor's baton, I made a slashing movement from the center out, orchestrating the explosion of the splintering branch-like shards of my staff, blowing them outwards to set an instant death for the machine before me.

Watching the outburst of smoke from its quickly disappearing body, I hoped that the Akuma's soul is finally able to smile again.

--

After cleaning up the mess as best I could, I limped out the door on my reconstructed staff, everything once again turned painfully normal with my Innocence's deactivation. The support gone, my leg stung like crazy with every step. It was one of those inconveniences of life, anyway, so I hobbled into town.

I was confused with the empty streets at first. There was nobody there at all, and with the closed doors and tightly shut windows with thick blinds I could guess where they went. But why?

"Look out!"

Rolling in instinct, I luckily kept my life as more bullets came out of nowhere, their size familiar. "More Akuma?" I blurted, surprise over-spilling to seep into my voice.

"Get out of here, boy!" Somebody shoved me really hard, sending me sprawling to the ground again, and into a puddle, to boot.

Wiping the water from my face, I looked up to see a real exorcist, dressed in a black waist-length coat with matching pants. The voice I heard sounded male, and sure enough when I followed him with my eyes he looked the gender, too. On his hands were thick, golden full-length swords running from the back of a matching glove, smaller silver blades peeking out the fingertips and clattering with a ringing sound as he ran past me to avoid being shot.

He twirled around suddenly and raked the two Akuma chasing him, scarring them with five curving lines each. One screamed and saw me hiding in the opening to the alleyway. As fast as it could it rushed to me and pointed a barrel at my head with a loud clicking sound. I groaned as the exorcist turned his head and got distracted, nearly getting blasted apart by the other Akuma's bullets.

"Idiot," I mumbled. "Innocence, activate!"

The Akuma didn't know what hit it when I crashed my staff onto its head to crack it open like an egg, an instant death in its weakened state. From the rebound, I turned to the remaining battlers. Neither exorcist nor Akuma knew what happened as I rushed forward to break the two apart and slammed the latter to the ground in a single blow. Stunned, the exorcist just stood there even as the Akuma began firing again as it returned to its floating position, at me thankfully or he'd have been dead.

Feinting to the right, I ducked under the thing and kicked it skyward. It speared itself on my staff upon landing and exploded, covering the two of us in its acrid smell. Plugging my nose against the scent of blood and flesh, I hid in my thick coat until the smoke subsided and the skies were visible again. Or at least I tried to; someone shook me out before the air cleaned out. "What?" I yelled, nose wrinkling.

"Who are you?" was the reply.

I uncovered my eyes to see the exorcist, but in much better quality than before. He was definitely a 'he' and was also about fourteen, same as me. Brown, smooth hair covered most of his long face with deep amber eyes peeking out of the mess. Kind, curious eyes, they were.

"My name's Chris," I said, brushing dust off my coat as I deactivated my weapon again. "So who're you, exorcist?"

"I'm Mana Walker," he replied, "From the Black Order."

I was jolted into looking at him. "Walker, you said?"

"Yeah," he laughed, a familiar ring to it. "Father named me after his adopted father."

"He never told me he had a son," I mused, looking into his face to try and spot identical traits.

"Huh? You've seen my father?" asked Mana, eyes suddenly lighting up. "Where? Is his name Allen Walker?"

"Yeah," I said, surprised. "But he left me to my own schedule so we could work faster. Well, once he knew I could take care of myself, that is. We agreed to meet again every equinox and solstice in random places. He's doing well, last I saw."

"I wish _I _could see him that often," he sighed. "Ever since Uncle chased him out because of Mother marrying him, I've only seen him on my birthdays, and only briefly, too. He gave me my Innocence two years ago," he said, showing me the elbow-length gloves he was wearing. "I was fourteen."

"Eh? So you're sixteen?" He nodded. "You inherited his shortness. It's kind of funny, since you're only an inch or so taller than I am, bean sprout junior."

I thought I saw an anger mark on him before he replied, "What's so odd about that?"

"One, I'm_ fourteen_ years old. Two, I'm a girl."

"Say what?" he sputtered, jaw dropping. I rolled my eyes, already accustomed to the reaction. "But isn't Chris a boy's name?"

"Have a problem?" I asked, nudging my staff against his head.

"Oh, no," he said, backing off. "Anyway, do you…um, want to go back to the Black Order with me? It's a while before the Summer Solstice so maybe if you want to…?"

"Oh, why not. Teacher always wanted me to see it anyway."

Mana then proceeded to hold his hand out. I could see the glove he was wearing with pretty good precision: silver with a small golden cross on the palm. Unhesitant in understanding, I covered it with my own hand, watching my bare, pale flesh disappear into his oddly larger fingers.

"And one more question," I suddenly blurted.

"What?" he asked, dropping the handshake.

"Would your uncle kill me for knowing your father?"


	2. Chapter 2

"You sure eat a lot, even if you aren't a parasite-type."

"So do you," I pointed out, flicking a spoon to the three plates before him.

"Fine. Oh, Chris, have you ever been up here before?"

"I showed you this restaurant, didn't I?"

Mana and I were roughly a fourth of the way to the Black Order when we both heard our stomachs grumble really loudly. Because our train wasn't to arrive in the next hour anyway, we both went to a nearby town for a bite. I remembered that Teacher and I passed by a couple times just to eat here. The bread was heavenly, as well as the rose wine I ordered once.

I had the former in stew at that moment. Mana had the same, and was downing it faster than I did. "Slow down, otherwise you'll get a stomachache," I said, pointing my spoon at him from across the table, the sunshine from the large windows bouncing off its surface to shine into his eyes.

"Unless you're my father," he said, turning away from the light to take my advice and sip a little slowly.

"Of course. He'd down an entire pot or two in the space of time we're using."

"Very true," he laughed. "Every time he comes over, he single-handedly finishes the feast we have so that the dish washers don't have to dump much food out, if any."

I tipped the bowl so that the rest of the creamy soup fell into my throat. Unfortunately, I missed a particularly large chunk of bread hidden under the surface and choked, spraying the stew all over the table. "Um…napkins and water, please," Mana called, waving a server over. A nearby fellow trotted to our table, but I was distracted when my leg started going pins-and-needles again. So I was rather late in seeing the silvery barrel pointed to my head.

The explosion coming from Mana bending the tube sideways with his blades to block the energy was rather large. If it had hit its original target, my head would've been reduced to a bloody pile of brains and bone. Instead, the Akuma was blasted some ten feet backwards into the bar area while my friend and I were blown out the window and into the street. Lucky Mana had his coat to protect against the cobbles; I tumbled head over heels in my comparatively thin frock coat trying to keep my staff in my hands.

People ran screaming from the buildings in the area as we stood up to jump into battle position. Neither of us was too hurt or surprised at the suddenness of the attack. Or at least I wasn't.

The mass of guns came flying out seconds later. It seemed like a level one, the way it doesn't try to tease us first chance it got. But then another voice poked at us from behind us. "Hi, hi; what'cha doing?"

"Oh, darn," I sighed while turning around, coming face-to-face with a jellyfish. Well, it was a black and white jellyfish with gun-like tentacles and lightning rods on its bulb, as well as a bubbly personality. "No answer? Aw, you're not very fun. After I destroy you, maybe I could get your friend to play, kiddie."

"Perhaps I could spare some minutes," I said, struggling to my feet. "Innocence—!"

"No!" Mana sprinted in front of me, blocking the Akuma from view despite his small size. "You handle the level one. I'll deal with _it_," he hissed, rushing at the floating blob.

"Innocence, activate," he cried, "Dawn Phoenix!" Again I saw his hands blaze gold, steel-ish blades fanning out below golden swords made to pierce dark matter.

Sighing at his protective nature, I was a little distracted and nearly got half of my long coat blasted away as the level one opened fire. "Hey, didn't your dad teach you manners?" I yelled in midair. Landing awkwardly with my leg being how it is, I quickly tapped my staff against the stone. "Innocence, activate!"

One thrust, and the point passed into the face. Quick as I can, I flipped from hanging on its exploding cheeks onto the level two's head, balancing on the protrusions with thick soles blocking instant piercing of my feet. "Hi, hi," I called to it with the same tone it used earlier, "Want to play now?"

I nearly fell over as it suddenly extended my footholds. "Sure," it squealed. "Let's play hopscotch!"

From high above, perhaps a story or five, I really regretted choosing this as my landing spot. Not only did it get me out of reach of its annoying face, but any attacks Mana or I tried would only end in me falling to, at worst, death. And since I did not want to take its alternative of another crippled leg, I tried to take my descent in tiny inches and gingerly wrapped around another spike, only to see it snap with a touch. Yikes.

And worst than that, I still could see more Akuma gang up on Mana. All the way up here, even my best long-range attack couldn't reach far enough. Searching through my thoughts, I was broken out of them when even more bullets rushed towards my unsteady form. "Oh, no," I said, suddenly pressed on time.

Hoping that God really does save children and idiots, I jumped between the spines and stuck my feet out to try and slow down. Sharp pieces of whatever an Akuma's head spikes are made of splintered, broke, and embedded themselves in my ankles, boots blocking most of the feet-related injuries. I held off the tears by closing my eyes as agonizing pain bit hard into my flesh. It was almost as bad as…

"Ouch!"

I finally landed atop the squishy head of the level two. Letting light through my pupils, I nearly threw up as I looked at the state of my legs. Really, that was hard to do considering I've ever been through while traveling with Teacher. But to see thick, black, venom-dripping _things_ sticking out of my body, my leg…I didn't even feel relieved that I was still alive. In fact, I didn't feel anything at all.

"Chris, a little help here, please!" Mana's voice broke slightly through my haunted thoughts, moving my head towards his dancing form. Blankly, I looked at the flashing swords he wore, unable to see them at the same time for…

I tilted my eyes to dye his hair white and splayed the lower part into a thick cloak over his shoulders. Twisted the silver blades on the left to cover his entire arm plus a few more inches of claw, dulling the color into a hard metallic gray while his other arm became white and rounded. Separated the golden sword on the right into wings and a tail. Painted an intricate scar on his face slightly hidden under a gear-covered eye.

Surrounded by Akuma in the heat of a battle, he reminded me of…

_Oh, no_, I thought.

…and the bloody razors in my leg…

"_Mama! No! How could you do this? No, stop!"_

"…_Someone, please…"_

…_h…_

"_Miss…?"_

…_h…e…_

"_Are you okay?"_

"H…e…l…" I mumbled, memories of a slaughter possessing my thoughts. "Help me!"

Incoherent while remembering those days now five years past but which seemed like present, I went haywire. Anything that moved was stabbed instantly. Tears of so many emotions mingled with the metal shards flying around like confetti at a party in Hell. Explosions cast shadows everywhere. Pain ran across my flesh like flames; I was being fried alive reliving the darkest moments in my life. The Akuma attack; the bodies on the bloodied floor; the dark claws tearing into my leg; the…the shining cube in a white-haired man's pocket…

_Focus on that_, some inner voice told me. _Innocence. The hope of life and death. A chance to make use of the mangled body you hold. Make a way to live and help others live!_

I gritted my teeth, trying to draw up more good, more confidence, more…light.

"_Chris," he asked, turning so a silver mask glittered at me. "You can take care of yourself, right? Able to stand on your two feet?"_

"I can, Teacher."

The spell shattered, the sight of reality returning to me. "Mana!" I called, eyes clearing with renewed life as the memories receded at last, the traumatic past put in its place.

"About time," I heard him say some five feet to my right.

"Duck!" I yelled back. I threw my staff like a javelin, watching it spear the level two in the face. "Huh?" it asked, looking up at the weapon imbedded bloodlessly in its pale face. "Are we playing doctor? Better fix me up with your flesh, 'kay?" It charged with those words fresh in the air, its head down with the remaining spikes aimed towards me.

Unraveling my hand ribbons, I spun on one leg in spirals with arms out in the air, focusing on working my attack rather than the charging Akuma. "Heaven's Leaves: winter," I cried, "With a twist!" The ebony splinters started following my movements, swirling in a dangerous tornado with me at its eye. The jellyfish was blasted backwards with the force of the flying anti-Akuma weapon shards while its comrades were being destroyed left and right, up and down. Once I was sure that the level ones were gone, I stopped twirling top-like and thrusted my hands at the last one.

"May you return to Heaven," I prayed, clapping my hands together as the sharp branches flew around the Akuma and speared it with multiple attacks until gathering in the middle, just like my palms. By then, there were so many holes in the jellyfish's head that it found that it was impossible to keep its form.

"This wasn't fun at all!" it wailed as it disintegrated into the air.

I recalled and reformed my anti-Akuma weapon and deactivated it. "I thought it was better than hopscotch."

But as I looked around for my hiding friend, I collapsed. Struggling to keep conscious, I looked around and noticed that blood was everywhere…with black spines scattered among it. Remembering my leg, I suddenly felt it fire up once again in serious pain. Uttering a small cry, I fell again, my cheeks getting stained red by my own blood.

I felt someone's gloved hand on my face. "Chris! Hold on, okay? I'll get you to a hospital; it's going to be okay!" someone yelled close by.

"Teacher?" I mumbled, confused. My eyes were blurring over, shutting its lids so that I could only see a black-clothed figure bending over me.

"I know it's going to be all right, as long as you're here. You can make anything right again."

--

"Chris?" Mana called, lightly slapping her cheeks to see no reply. "Anybody!" he yelled at the street, "Call the hospital!" Shivers suddenly split the air, his sight seeming to waver before…

"It's just around the corner." Mana turned to see a tall, slightly elderly man walk towards him. He was wearing glasses and a long coat over a collared shirt, a puffy beret-like hat sitting over graying hair.

"Uncle K-Komui!" he gasped. "What are you doing here?"

The man flinched before replying, "I happened to see the explosions from the train. Who's that?" Komui pointed a finger at the scarlet-dyed body the exorcist was bending over.

"Aah! I forgot Chris! Quick, which way to the hospital?" Mana exclaimed, pulling on the blood-soaked cloak to try and hoist its wearer onto his shoulder. She was surprisingly light for a girl her age, he found out when the shoulders lifted easily off the ground. But seeing as she was about his height…

A hand clasped over his shoulder. "I'll bring him in," Komui said softly, lifting Chris's body onto his back and running forwards into a street. With the bouncy gait, the injured hand finally let go of the long pole it had been clasping for so long.

"Hey, wait!" Mana quickly grabbed the fallen staff and rushed behind his uncle. "Around the corner, wasn't it?" he panted.

"And a bit," Komui replied, huffing as he suddenly stopped before a decrepit door. Mana nearly ran into him as he walked onto the dirty steps descending to the entryway.

"Uncle?"

The door opened with a creak. Eyes glinted in the darkness, with only a little light available to show Mana their faces. Pale faces they were, with a chain of black crosses on their foreheads.

Komui turned to the panting boy beginning to back away. "T-they're of the Noah family," he stuttered.

"Yes," Komui hissed, tossing the limp figure on his shoulders through the threshold, sending a shower of blood spiraling onto the walls. "And, exorcist, you have fallen for my illusion. My brothers and I are very pleased to meet you; we might even attend a funeral together later," he said, licking his lips as the area rippled again to shed the skin over reality.

A mop of long brown hair fell over dark eyes, the clothes fading from white to navy and olive. A simple top hat matching the black coat stretching over his form popped out of nowhere to land on his head. With a white-gloved hand, he parted his bangs to show Mana the circlet of crosses on his temple.

"Yours."


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up in complete darkness. Very painfully.

The floor was cold and hard, and made me shiver as I moved my hands around. Unable to go farther without my staff (where was it?), I was about to draw my fingers back into my pockets when they touched skin. Blinking in surprise, I stroked the surface and it moved.

"Chris?" a voice echoed from the area. "Are you okay?" I blinked some more as I realized that the voice was Mana's, and that it was very weak and brittle, as if it would collapse at any other noise. "Wait. You _are_ Chris, right?" he added with a fearful shiver to it.

"Yeah. Where are we?"

Silence. Then a scraping sound, one of metal against stone, rang out. I grit my teeth in pain; the sudden explosion of sound was too much for right then. So when it stopped, I silently thanked the thing that decided to stop the movement. But then another sound ripped across my ears in a roaring of darkness…and it wasn't even louder than Mana's whisper. It was the thing I thanked, its voice.

"So who's going next?"

With my hand on his body still, I could feel Mana shudder. "Who's asking?" I inquired to nobody in particular, yet expecting the person outside to answer. But it was the raspy voice beside me who replied.

"Noah."

The term instantly ran pins and needles down my spine. I had never met the supernatural humans before then, but Teacher has told many stories about them, most of which he had a sufferer's face to show with it. And if we were trapped in their territory, me still injured like this…well, I couldn't really do anything about anything. So I asked the unknown voice, "Going where?"

"To play, of course. Are you an exorcist?" it asked.

I thought about that question for a bit before answering, "No." A hissing sound leaking regret ran into my ears, searing them without burning. I kept my breath steady, though…

"Are you or is your friend going to play with us?" I squirmed uncomfortably with the tone the Noah was using. He noticeably thought Mana, the obvious exorcist, was more 'fun' with the way he stressed the words after I made him assume I was probably normal. Nevertheless, I tried to buy time by asking, "To whom do you ask that question?"

"Ah, a riddling man is sitting in our midst. Tell me, if there was a ruin on one side of the surface of the sea, and that surface was the barrier between dreaming and believing, where does that ruin belong?"

"Where imagination lies," I replied, unhesitant in my choice of words. Taking time for rational thinking could be deadly when facing enemies like this; they might have an unspoken time limit on their patience. And anyway, I was scared to do anything else but talk, much less use my head.

So I was shaken when the voice started to laugh, joined in by at least two others. "I've heard many replies, one being reality for the ruin is supposing touching the barrier, but this is a new one. Perhaps we'll play with you instead. The exorcist is getting rather boring, anyway."

Again, the metal screeched as the Noah pulled open the door. Somewhat roughly, it pulled me out by my arm and lifted me farther into the darkness.

And suddenly I was soaring through the sky, pulled upwards towards the clouds, but at the same time…

…I was falling into Hell.

--

Harsh, dry grass bit my bare hands as I pushed myself up to see the same brown stalks sticking up like needles in an endless valley around me. The hill I sat atop stood oddly tall in the flat lands nearby. On closer inspection, I could see crooked stones jabbing through the tainted amber stems, each set in a way that it'd make patterns if I looked too long.

The surroundings were so odd I didn't see the hat-wearing doll stumble up the hillside, partially since it and its top hat were the same colors as the grass it so slightly parted, until it spoke. "Here's another riddle. Why is the sky so filled with Akuma, and yet you can't see them?" it asked to a wide-eyed me, pointing up before disappearing.

I instinctively rolled to the side as the place I sat on suddenly exploded, the grass falling like brassy snow. But once they came close enough to me, they changed course from falling in small twists and twirls and aimed themselves instead to harm me. I had three in my arm; all having gone through its full two inches until I pulled them out and discarded the bloody stems with a huff.

Even the grass I tossed up tried to go through my thick boots. Some were high enough to sink into my calves, but it was my bad leg that troubled me more than anything. Limping through grass wasn't helping the situation, and the random twist to throw off the Akuma's aim was tiring my remaining leg. If only I had my staff!

Running didn't seem to do any good anyway. From the hill I had seen no other rise in earth, but I eventually felt like the ground grew hills as my legs tilted a little more vertical by the step. The setting didn't change by sight, though, so I just kept going. It seemed like forever until the grass suddenly righted itself, sending me sprawling to the piercing grass.

Speed suddenly decreased, I was then caught in a crossfire. Giant bullets ripped apart the air I tried to breathe, some catching my flesh and biting through to exit as a comet of blood. The stinging venom etched black pentacles into my body, carving the tissues knife-like with pain scarring the cuts inside and outside…!

I looked up from the pain and saw the dancing doll laughing at me, its tall hat as black as the pentacles spreading on my face.

--

"You're no fun. The exorcist screamed like a baby every time we put him through it and that was…five times, right?"

"Yes, and he also _cried_. Oh, how I wanted to lick his tears…"

I slowly sat up in the darkness, one hand on a body that was still suffering with every breath he took. "Mana…?" I whispered, shocked that after something like that, he was able to stay conscious and agree to keep going instead of me. And five times, to boot. He shuffled his ears towards my shaky voice. Or away from it; I couldn't tell.

"I'm sorry," he replied weakly. "For you having to go through that."

Bitter, silent tears slid down from my eyes. Even now he wanted to keep me out of serious danger; how so like his father he was. Except I didn't expect what he did next.

"You can escape. Just leave me behind and warn the Black Order," he rasped, setting something hard and long into the hand that was sitting on his body. "I'll be fine."

I don't think that I was really conscious of slapping him until my hand started stinging. Even the Noah went silent outside our cage when the sound echoed from the walls.

"You idiot," I softly seethed, each word loaded with the pain not too unlike one when faced with suicide. "_Never, ever_ ask me to do that. I've seen too much pain to just run and ask someone else to help when I could." I clenched my staff hard, a memory of golden hair stained with blood sliding into sight.

"Tsk tsk, friends fighting over who wants to play with us. Should I choose for you?"

"No," I said, standing with the help of my returned staff, forcing away the gore to see a wavering in the darkness. "I'm ready to play."

--

Again I sat on a hill, but this one was covered in snow.

My staff lay against my now bloodless leg, half-buried in the powder. I flung myself up from the snow angel to see the cold field stretch out endlessly from my position, trees of ice breaking spots here and there against the blinding sight. I stood up fully to await my messenger, and didn't have to wait long as from the ice popped a pure white rabbit with a white top hat on its head, long ears lolling from slits in the felt. Red eyes looked at me and shrunk into a slit.

"I hope you're better than the dark-head that wandered in here earlier. If there was an exorcist that was titled 'most amateurish', it would be him."

"Oh, really?" I asked, tapping my staff against the chilly ground. "I'll need to start drilling him properly once we get out. But before that; Innocence, activate!"

My staff in all its night-black beauty morphed in my hands to the astonishment of the rabbit. "I thought you said that you weren't an exorcist?" it asked, curiously tilting its head.

"I'm not," I grinned. "An accommodator, yes, but definitely not of the Black Order; not a person officially partnered with an Innocence. So…you could think me a passerby who saw someone in danger and took actions to save him. You could say that I'm the surprise arrow that will spear my enemy and send him back to where he needs to be." And with my monologue done, I pulled back my arm and threw the sharpened staff towards the white fluff ball.

Surprise tore apart his illusion as a man emerged from the skin of the rabbit to jump away from the flying javelin. He landed at the same time that the anti-Akuma weapon _thunked_ between the dark scarlet eyes of the empty rabbit's skin.

The Noah didn't have any likenesses to the animal it chose to be seen as other than the color of its straight, hanging hair, which matched the tint in the fur ball's eyes. A heavy maroon duster covered most of his body, and the same white top hat (enlarged) sat slightly crooked atop the strings of long hair. He pushed away a few of his bangs so that I could just see a cross or two above his brow. "Gutsy. As a reward for surprising me, I'll tell you that my name's Hare Flame. Guess how you're going to die, young man."

"Ohhh, you're a hare, not a rabbit," I said. "Oops. But do either hares or rabbits use f—?"

Something stung my arm. I looked down expecting a needle or blade of grass, but instead saw a blackened spot on my skin. "A burn," I muttered thoughtfully.

"Indeed," Hare said. "In this frozen land of your mind's set, I'll bring great pleasure in melting it for you." Raising a hand, he drew out a thick candle striped a ghostly white and black. With a snap of his fingers, the wick sparked into life. I heard him take the large breath seconds before I dove to avoid the giant explosion of black fire that smashed into the ice tree behind me. It and ten of its thick-trunked brothers melted completely into water with trees about a meter away slightly affected.

I had hid behind another tree some lengths away, and sweat from the sudden heat peppered my face despite the crisp snow crunching beneath my knees. Ignoring both, I waited until the flames subsided until daring a peek. And what I saw wasn't very assuring.

He was smiling. The Noah was _smiling_. "Come out to play, little boy," he drawled, the firelight from the candle flicking shadows into every depression on his face. "Didn't you say you wanted to? Or should I call my brothers and ask them to bring the exorcist into it?"

He was having fun destroying things.

For the first time, I felt fear mixed with disgust, the former conquering. I was literally shaking in my boots. But he had threatened to drag Mana into this fight, and I know that it was going to take a lot more than a few minutes for him to heal far enough to stand, much less fight. And…he had taken the Noah's blows earlier to divert this situation from me.

Drawing my staff from the ground, I stepped from my hiding place.

"Ah, there you are. Ready for a summer?"

"Summer doesn't suit your flaming ways," I said, unraveling my hand ribbons. "You are more of a winter than I am."

I closed my eyes, remembering the soft, battered voice that still wished me to stay safe. _Well, the roles are reversed. I'll take your pain, Mana, as best as I can. _

"You'll pay for hurting my friend," I seethed, planting my staff into the snow. "Heaven's Leaves: winter!" Not surprisingly, the scattering shards reacted with my anger to fly around faster than usual as I shot them again and again at the redheaded Noah. I surrounded him with Innocence until I couldn't see past the cloud of black and drew them in with one clap of the hands.

I was sure it hit.

I was sure I was finished with Hare.

Only the latter was false.

"Well done," I heard from the sphere of ebony. "Not many have such a high synchronizing rate, especially that friend of yours. I should leave you alive to see how we Noah destroy Innocence." I gasped as he burned a hole through what seemed like an impenetrable wall, wax dripping from the place he melted it from with the little flame sitting on the wick.

He escaped Heaven's Leaves without even trying. Without dropping his candle. Who…no, what…is he?


	4. Chapter 4

Hare and I had a straining stare-down for the briefest seconds before we fluidly raised our individual weapons and attacked.

Like a real hare, he was _fast_. I had to fight seriously just to be able to keep up with the marbles of fire he blew into the air, since my usual speed advantage was pinned down under his superior one. Again and again he burned my clothes with whips, jets, and small firestorms as I randomly directed the sharp pieces of my anti-Akuma weapon around our fighting arena, hoping to gain at least a single hit. In the flurry of melting from offence to defense, I couldn't tell if I was battling a lazy river or an avalanche. Considering, though, that I felt the stinging almost continuously, I might have been correct in saying that I was losing.

We backed off into soft powder after trading blows for the second time, both now fully aware of the other's basic abilities. But it seemed like he found the results easier than I did.

"Hm, you're a little better than the other exorcist, but still not fun enough. Did you awaken a level two on your Innocence yet?" he asked, fingering the flame that endured all the flying, jumping, and slicing. "You're going to need it to survive, boy."

I answered by reforming my staff and trying hand-to-hand.

Even there he bested me, twisting in seemingly impossible ways to avoid the white crystal's sting and then blowing fire onto vulnerable parts of my body. I yelped when he sprayed a bit of ribbon-bare wrist with flames, making me drop the staff for crucial seconds. When I bent over to try and retrieve it, he kicked me on the behind and I flew into the snow face-first.

I turned around panting for a good, deep breath as he placed a heavy foot on my anti-Akuma weapon. "So, I hope you know that when a Noah destroys Innocence, it's usually a thorough job," he smirked.

"I do," I replied, "But you can destroy it only if you can reach it." The staff vanished underfoot and returned to my cold, sweating hands. I stood unsteadily and pointed the sharp crystal at him. "And," I added, "You said 'usually', which is not a word meaning 'guaranteed'."

"Gutsy," he said with a faint smile, snapping his fingers at the same time. "I like that." More fire darts appeared overhead and rained down on me. I twirled my staff to shield myself from the assault and charged again. He lazily leapt away from my incoming slashing movement with a bend of his ankles and made it hail charcoal-making flames in reply, cutting craters in the snow that sizzled for a while after.

"Are you going to give me a good time? Bad toys don't stay in the house; they go in the incinerator."

"Why should I?" I retorted. "It's just an illusion like the last time."

The Noah suddenly vanished.

I gasped as he held the licking flame under my chin, face hidden behind mine. "Illusion, did you say? Oh, now that's a big, big mistake." I tried to kick him between the legs, but he again twisted out of range while my foot passed through air, not connecting with any flesh despite the small gap once between us.

"I'm bored with you now," I heard him say some meters behind me as I wiped the blackened skin off my face.

I didn't even have time to panic before head-sized fireballs flew out like a swarm of flies. They were numbered like so as well, and that was too many for me to reflect. A well-placed shot sent my staff flying, leaving my exhausted, badly burned body exposed to anything he threw at me.

But standing there and not actively resisting had an odd effect on me: I finally noticed the smell of singed hair and flesh, as well as the pain from the latter. Fatigue bit with persistent jaws into every part of my body, the dull throb sighing with a lovely relief as I let myself actually rest. _Just sit here_, some inner voice insisted,_ and let the world handle itself once you're off to a better place_.

I closed my eyes to the words.

_Let God fall from his heaven if I gave in to that!_

Joints screamed as I tumbled to avoid the jet of fire he blazed into life. He followed me with the stream as I took off running to my staff, snatching it up seconds away from incineration. I had no doubt that he had the ability to fry the Innocence with heat like that, seeing as I began sweating about a meter away from the open fire.

As I snuck a glance at Hare, though, I noticed that I could barely see him past the roaring inferno. This gave me an idea; if I can't see him, he can't see me. "Heaven's Leaves; winter," I muttered under my breath.

The branches scattered into the shadows and flew around the rampage of fire to catch the smiling Noah by surprise. He caught wind of it somehow seconds before success and swung his flames at the shards instead. I sped them up and dashed every branch into the ground from where they were, raising them again beside me like black seedlings from the white snow and fusing them back into a single staff, which I deactivated out of fatigue.

Once the fireworks subsided, I saw with a little glow of happiness that some of my branches had escaped detection, particularly one that slashed his gray cheek with a bloodless gash. A corner of his hat was torn off, too, and cuts riddled the nice duster with jagged edges.

"Think I'm a dusty doll still?" I taunted in between panting and huffing.

He wiped his skin with the back of his hand, healing the rows of torn hexagons. Like a hot iron, he smoothed out the cuts over his clothes too, so it seemed like my successes didn't happen at all.

Then knife-sharp teeth showed themselves to me, each point glistening with snowy light. "I haven't felt pain like that in a long time," he said, shoulders shaking with…mirth? Oh, d—

I cried out in surprise as the cold white floor suddenly melted into a volcanic disaster.

My bad foot nearly fell in a snow-emptied crack as I backed away into a small patch of land that hadn't transformed into a searing lava channel. Hare perched some distance away on his own island at the heart of a very wide sea of fiery liquid rock.

"You're good," I heard him say across the heat. "So let's up this battle with a surprise." Raising a hand, he created a spewing fountain of lava that hardened into a tower of black stone about two stories high. A finger snap summoned a puff of smoke at its flat peak and left a large black top hat in its place. "And from the hat comes," he laughs, "Another candle!"

Sure enough, a jet of lava shot the hat into oblivion to reveal a tall, stark white candle lit brightly with a flickering black flame. And as I watched, the column of wax bent backwards and threw fireballs at me.

I painfully back flipped with my one good leg onto the rock behind me and nearly fell over as the seemingly solid floor gave way. Propelling myself back even farther to avoid dying in a substance over 1000 degrees, I grunted as my bad landing collapsed my knees upon falling on _real_ solid rock.

"But I'm not done yet," he added, voice somehow still making it clear across to me. The island I sat on suddenly sat atop a geyser of glowing fire, precautiously balanced even when the molten mass turned black and spiky. Really, I was really scared when that happened. Was he going to break the thin tower and throw me in the scarlet, glowing lake?

But what was to come was probably even worse.

Another top hat, this one much bigger than any I've ever seen, appeared behind me. Being stuck some two or three stories up while my body was still fatigued, I could only watch as jets of lava propelled sharp chunks of obsidian into the felt, sending it flying and nearly burning the person underneath.

"Mana!" I exclaimed. "What…what happened?"

His limp brown hair swayed in the hot air as he looked up, uncurling slightly from the fetal position he was hiding in. "Chris? Where am I? Where are—what?" His eyes flicked from the spark-lit skies to the still-warm lava rock underhand. Finally, he saw the black figure in the not-too-far distance, and everything clicked.

"That Noah brought me here, didn't he? And what happened to you?" he asked, looking me up and down, doubtlessly wondering about the black blotches all over me. Some were even still alive with dormant flames.

"His name is Hare Flame, and yes, he did," I said slowly, ignoring the latter question. "Duck!"

A black fireball cut us apart as it flew from the white candle between Hare and us. "Oh," he gasped. "Are we in one of their odd realities, or have I been teleported to the Pacific islands?" Mana asked.

"So it was a reality all this time? No wonder he was so angry when I questioned it."

"You actually thought it was an illusion?"

"Well, in the field before this I was shot by Akuma and the virus spread…" The rest was cut off as I tackled Mana so as to get him away from the incoming flames. "Never mind. Let's get him first," I panted, sitting him up.

"Sure. It shouldn't be too hard on me just to get over there," he said, standing and thrusting his gold-gloved hands towards the white candle and the Noah beyond. I stood beside him and tapped the hole-ridden lava rock with my staff.

And together, we cried, "Innocence, activate!"

Again the light woke our dormant weapons. And it did so just in time as well, since scarlet fireballs began raining down on the two of us. I suppose Hare had seen the glow and decided to try and finish us off before we combined forces. Does that mean he's worried? Then…

"Let's make a plan first," I whispered once the flames subsided, then put my mouth to his hearing organ. "Listen, he has a really big grudge on me right now for teasing him. So I'll attack first and you use the distraction to deal a big blow, since you can pierce things better than I can."

"Are you two _done_ yet?"

I ignored the Noah as I bent even closer towards Mana's ear. "I'll take the left, you go right. Then the candle might only be able to shoot one of us at a time."

"Do you want to make me angry?" he bellowed.

"Wait for my attack to keep him busy before you charge him."

"Got it," he said, nodding. But when he stood, he was still noticeably shaky.

"Are you okay?" I asked, a bit worried about the young exorcist.

"Can't lose to a girl two years younger than me," he grinned before running off, jumping over the side of our tower to land cat-like on the rock below. I almost laughed despite our dire situation; he was soon running on the right side shore.

Creating small bursts of black sand with every step, I took to the left with new heart and quickly approached the white candle sitting innocently on its tower. Seconds after passing it, I hopefully thought that the fire balls would stop. Emphasizing "hopefully".

So I couldn't say I didn't expect it when the candle went berserk and began spitting black flames like acid. "Eyes open, Mana!" I yelled to the small figure across the bubbling mess of lava. We both turned and slashed through the fast, near-invisible blazes. The wad of wax at their centers collected on our anti-Akuma weapons, creating ghostly white streaks of half-melted sludge to weigh them down.

Once the candle went dormant again, I slammed the hardened wax into the ground, shattering quite a bit to coat the floor. I couldn't see what my partner did, and partially didn't care; I was the first attacker after all.

Twice more did the candle spout the charcoal-dark flames before I skidded to a halt not five feet from Hare. And as I crouched down to prepare my sneak attack, another bout of fire erupted. Like the other three times, I whacked at the wax core and was dismayed to see Mana not too far on the other side. For every second we have our Innocence activated, our energy is sapped bit by bit, I knew. So I had to try and finish this as fast as I could.

"Heaven's Leaves," I whispered, "Winter."

The resulting mess caught me off-guard and blew me into clear sight as the wax trapped portions of my separating staff. Heavy lumps of black and white fell to the ground as its brethren went spiraling towards the Noah. I smiled as I saw him turn and face me. "Now!" I cried to the exorcist behind him.

But Hare didn't flinch one bit as gold and silver blades blossomed in his abdomen. Instead, he turned his head to stare at Mana, who was still standing there frozen in disbelief.

"Was that all?" I heard him say softly while drawing his candle from a sleeve.

"N-no way," Mana stuttered, pulling out his anti-Akuma weapon to find no blood or flesh on it at all.

I felt my face pale as he snapped his fingers again. From here, the sick light looked like one from a funeral candle. Heavy drops of wax spotted the ground with thick puddles…wait. _Heavy_ drops of wax…

I called my branches back. "Mana, duck!"

Without hesitation he curled up on the floor, hands over his head. The Noah, however, turned to see me lift both the wax-trapped and separate shards of my anti-Akuma weapon and throw them with desperate speed towards the two of them. He probably didn't see it coming as one after another pounded him towards the edge of lava rock. Gritting my teeth against an overwhelming will to stop torturing myself, I raised a free hand and threw the last wax ball at his injured abdomen.

Something buckled, and Hare flew over his own sea of molten rock.

Mana and I watched as he began to fall in what seemed like slowed time. We heard his voice as he curled over to go down head first. "It seems like you two have won this battle. But rest assured it's not the end. We will meet again for another summer, exorcists. Perhaps even at your own residence." Light gathered at his landing spot and suddenly exploded without a sound to knock the two of us into oblivion, where we knew none but the heavenly state of sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

"Is Mana all right, Doctor?"

"Miss Exorcist, please be reassured that your son is just sleeping. We've treated his burns and his breathing and heartbeat is stable. His friend is a little worse off, but he'll recover as well."

"But there are so many bandages…"

My conscious fluttered, hearing the pain in the voice. "He'll live," I whispered, dry throat making it raspy.

Footsteps on tile. "What? Did you say something?" I heard a woman say.

I tried swallowing, but there was nothing to swallow. "He'll live. Just give him a rest."

Someone opened my eyes and shone a light in it. I tried turning away, but my limbs wouldn't work. "Stop…"

"Doctor, please leave me alone with these two." The light retreated, then was replaced by silence and a door closing with a tiny snap. "Who are you, and why were you with Mana?"

I wanted to answer, but the darkness returned and I fell back into sleep.

--

When I woke up again, the afternoon light from an open window lit up my surroundings. Straining to prop myself up, I sat clumsily on a pillow to see a typical hospital room. White walls, white tiles, white sheets; all the white was bouncing the sunlight around to make it brighter than usual.

On the bed a nightstand, pitcher of water, and floor away was Mana, snoozing. And in his corner, slightly hidden in shadows, was a woman I've never seen before. I was sure of that since she isn't a woman one would forget easily. Shining black hair was tied into two ponytails above her head. A matching traveling cloak wrapped around her upper body and flowed down in a waterfall to the floor. Her gentle face, although still retaining quite a flow of youth, seemed like it has been through so much.

Even as I watched, she slowly woke up and opened her eyes. Dark eyes, they were, touched with kindness and curiosity. Exactly like Mana's eyes.

Mana's mother. Teacher's wife.

"M-Miss Lenalee," I stuttered.

She turned to me, hands still on her lap. "So you're awake," she said, smiling. I felt awed at this beautiful angel sitting before me. And to think she's also an exorcist…!

"And you know who I am."

"Of course, Miss Lenalee. Teacher always talks about you in his stories. You look exactly like he describes, too: an angel," I added.

"Your teacher?" she asked.

"Your husband." Her eyes widened. "Allen Walker."

"Allen took an apprentice? He's never told me." I flinched a bit as she stood up and walked to my bedside. "So who is the lucky boy who has him as a teacher?" she asked with another bright smile

"My name's Chris. And, uh, I'm a girl." Her surprised face didn't faze me; I was very used to it. "But you look so much like a…boy."

"I know," I sighed. "But it's practical in my field."

"I suppose. And about that, what were you doing with Mana? Since you are Allen's apprentice—"

"Was," I corrected. "It ended some months ago."

"Well, since you _were_ his apprentice, can I guess that you are also an exorcist?"

"An accommodator of Innocence," I said, bowing my head. "I just met up with Mana in Reverie by mistake. Or fate, whichever you decide it is. I had no idea he was Teacher's son until he told me; the brown hair threw me off."

"At least curses aren't passable," she chuckled half-heartedly, turning to the sleeping boy and brushing his bangs back in a random motherly moment. "Although it was really unfortunate to have him end up as an exorcist, too. What I wouldn't give for that one Innocence to have been said 'no' to…" An awkward silence vibrated in the room, bouncing off the clean, white walls. I fidgeted uncomfortably, wondering what Teacher thought when the little crystal he hid in his coat pockets started gleaming near his _son_, of all people.

"At least he's not a Finder," I managed to say in trying to cut through the quiet. "He can protect himself. Sixteen, after all, is usually when people finally understand what maturity is. And him being a child of two exorcists…well, he won't waste his life very easily, I can tell you. I think the trouble is that he tries to save every life he can."

"Like his father," sighed Lenalee. "Did he try to save you too?"

"In Reverie he was distracted in an Akuma fight when one pointed its cannons at me," I said, shaking my head to have my neck ache again. "Of course, he didn't realize that I was an accommodator at the time, so I suppose it wasn't exactly the same circumstances as what you might have faced."

She looked at me, then Mana. "But Reverie couldn't have done this to you two, did it?"

"Ah…" Should I tell her we had run into a room of Noah shortly after a giant crowd of Akuma? It was an exorcist's worst nightmare, so what would a mother feel if she found her child to have been through one of those? But…it was also her duty to know that_ they_ are still around…

"I suggest you sit down," I said, patting the bed. She was confused, but eased onto the white sheets.

"Mana and I were coming back from Reverie and we decided to have lunch in a nearby town. Akuma interrupted us halfway in and gave us quite a bit of trouble."

"How much?"

"Enough to have knocked me unconscious of blood loss," I admitted. Ignoring her widened eyes, I plowed on, worried that if I stop I'll never get started again.

"So I didn't know what happened at first when I found myself in a cage with Mana beside me. Then someone asked me to play." Sweat broke out over my brow as the memory came back.

Lenalee gasped. "It wasn't…"

"It was. We were trapped by the Noah as, um, toys."

"No…But you two are still alive."

"We were lucky," I shrugged. "Apparently Mana has agreed to their demands five times before I woke up just so I wouldn't get hurt, so I took the sixth. It was the seventh that got us out; a Noah named Hare Flame battled me and somehow brought Mana into the fray." I gulped. "And we nearly died so many times. He wielded fire, which explains our burns—"

"—and fatigue." We both turned sharply to see Mana awake, eyes open and blinking at us. "Hello, Mother. What are you doing here?"

For speaking up, he received a seemingly painful hug. "Ow, ow, ow; Mother, please stop," he sputtered as Lenalee leaked tears onto some of his wounds. My chest was still fluttering with shock. "It's not nice to make your mother cry," I sighed. "Or have a friend come close to a heart attack."

"I'm sorry," he said, voice slightly muffled by being squeezed against a shoulder.

"Mana, don't scare me like that!" wailed Lenalee. "Do you know how bad it was coming by to give you a replacement golem and finding you in the hospital instead of the field?"

"Would you have preferred the latter with our conditions?" I couldn't help but mutter, lying back down into the soft white sheets.

"I thought this was an _easy_ mission? How did you get mixed up with the Noah?"

"Didn't Chris already explain?"

"All he knew―"

"She."

"I'm sorry if I keep using it, since…"

"I know," Mana said with a faint smile. "Sometimes I also forget that she's really a she."

"Well, all she told me was that she woke up in a cage after being attacked by Akuma."

"Yes, what did happen, Mana?" I asked. "I know you were still pretty well off after I fought the level two; you were hiding like I told you to." There was no way that a Noah could seize us in the middle of that square while Mana was still kicking and leave our Innocence intact while keeping us alive. I knew he was worth more fight than that.

The young adolescent shivered. "I was trying to take Chris to a hospital nearby, but since this place was new to me, I wasn't sure of where to go. And then…Uncle Komui appeared."

"What? But my brother was going through a mountain of paperwork and coffee last I saw him, and that wasn't too long ago."

"Because the one I saw wasn't Uncle. It was a Noah that looked exactly like him."

"What? A shape-shifter?"

"I don't know what he did, but he took Chris and said that he knew where the hospital was. Then he trapped me in an alley, pinned me down, and threw me in a cage which a small family of Noah waited outside of."

"How many were there?"

Mana scrunched up his cheeks in trying to remember. "At least…six or seven total, I think." Lenalee looked like fainting. Or crying again. I just felt relieved that we managed to escape that many.

"So how did you get here? Didn't they know you were exorcists?"

"They knew, of course," I said. "As to why they let us go, much less into a hospital, I don't know. Oh, and have either of you seen my staff?"

"Your anti-Akuma weapon?" asked Lenalee.

"And walking stick," I replied, pulling the sheets away from my legs to grit my teeth with pain as my fingers brushed the mass of bandages beneath them. "Great; as if it didn't hurt enough already."

Mana was looking under my bed when he pointed at what he said was my staff. But since he couldn't get out of bed, I had to bend over to get it. Pain ripped into my abdomen and I nearly fell out, but eventually I sat on my pillows with the wood across my lap. With the thick amber pole in my hands, I tried to stand up. Thankfully Lenalee was there when I collapsed seconds after trying.

"I don't think I'll be going anywhere soon."

"We have time," she said, smiling as she slid me back into bed. "The Black Order's not _too_ much in a hurry at the moment; I'll call sometime later to inform them that we'll be here a while. Are you coming with us when we return, Chris?" she asked, seating herself on Mana's bed.

"I suppose I could spare a visit," I said, stroking the worn grains in the oak to calm myself. It probably was not a good idea to start screaming with pain, especially in front of two exorcists. "So to prepare for that train ride, I'll just go to sleep." Lenalee nodded as I nodded away.

Well, easier said than done. In reality, I sat there with my eyes closed, listening in to Lenalee and Mana. My friend was objecting to being put to bed, but eventually he fell silent. Then a soft melody was sung to fill the silence, soft and sweet: a lullaby. My heart panged with sadness as each lovely word floated cloud-like into my ears.

I wonder if my mother ever sung me a lullaby. Teacher certainly didn't, or at least not when I was awake. Was there ever a guardian who lulled me to sleep by song? Why can't I remember anyone's face? I do have a mother, right…?

_Mother! No!_

I pushed the bubbling memories back. That certainly was not the one I wanted. So I concentrated and fell into that abyss beyond those stones covered in darkness, watching with a hawk's keen eye for any glimmer of light. Farther, farther, farther down I fell, delving deeper into my black, red-streaked past. And I reached out to grasp anything there, dark, light, _anything_ at all from my blood-linked family that wasn't tied to Akuma.

…

…Was that a star?

_The lovely fields of shining gold, the sea of trees so green,_

_I take your light within them both, those two whom you shall dream._

_And if the world is dark and cold, without a face for you,_

_Retreat back here if still and still your heart is truly pure._

_My arms may fade, my voice may crack, my life may fall apart,_

_But still this blessing lives within your innocent, bright heart._


	6. Chapter 6

_Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter…_

"I didn't know how much I missed trains," I sighed as I stuck my head out the window. Greenery and farms passed by in a whirl of color, the breezes blowing my hair so that it seemed like straw was flying alongside our carriage. "Country roads and lush scenery are all wonderful in their own way, but this…"

"You didn't take too many trains?"

"For the last month, I was looking around the quieter areas. Mana was the first in a while to get me back on one. And anyway, I wasn't too acceptable of jumping off bridges and onto moving cars."

"That's very…"

"Just joking! While I was with Teacher, though, we had to do that numerous times. We took backwater paths often and very few stations were near our locations. France was just horrible; all those forests…"

Silence. I pulled my head in to see two stuck out the entry door talking what seemed like a woman pushing carts of food. Realizing that I hadn't had lunch in a while, I joined them and found myself face to face with a hooded male, an odd telephone-like box on his back. "Oh," he said, looking at me. "And w-who's he?"

"Sorry, Jacob. Chris, this is Jacob, a Finder of the Black Order. Jacob, this is Chris, Allen's apprentice. The one I was talking about."

"_Ex_-apprentice," I said. "Good to meet you, Jacob." We shook hands and I was surprised to feel that his was gummy-like and shaky.

"He's not used to meeting new people," Lenalee added, noticing the trembling fingers. "We haven't had too many new recruits recently, either."

"I see."

"Pleased to m-meet you, Master Chris," Jacob stuttered.

"Same. Anyway, how long would it be until we reach wherever the Black Order headquarters is?"

"A while, partially since we're given a mission. That's why Jacob is here," answered Mana, gesturing to the beige-clothed man. "What was it again?"

"I-Innocence is suspected to be found in Britain. S-since we're the closest to the island, we've been chosen to r-retrieve it."

"Are there any details?" I asked, scratching my leg in anticipation. And because it was itchy.

"One c-call from the Finders; fuzzy, m-mind you; mentioned a 'continuous symphony' b-before all communication was c-cut off."

A period of silent thinking clouded the compartment. Going into the unknown was always a risky business, and that was especially so with Innocence. I pondered the available plans before realizing that I…

"Am I allowed to join you?"

Mana and Lenalee looked at me. "Why not?"

"I'm not an official exorcist or anything…"

"It's all right," Lenalee said. "The Black Order wouldn't mind a bit of help; we need as much as we can get. And how could I say no to a student of dear Allen?"

That again. "Ah…if you don't mind, can you stop seeing me as Teacher's apprentice? When I left him, he told me that we were equals and I want others to see me that way, not only as a previous student."

"And yet you call him 'Teacher', not by name."

_She has a point there_, I thought. "It's a hard habit to break."

"Well," Lenalee said, "If it makes you feel any better, when Allen first came to the Black Order, quite a few of us saw him as Cross's disciple for a while."

"Did he hate it?" I asked.

"He and his master weren't on very good terms…"

"I know." I shivered at remembering all the stories Teacher told me about the red-headed devil of a teacher he followed. Or more correctly, worked for, labored for, and paid debts for. Gulp. I was definitely glad that he didn't teach like Cross did.

"Chris? Something wrong?"

"Eh? Oh, sorry; I was just thinking back a bit."

The door slid open to our compartment again. "Excuse me, but we're almost at our stop," Jacob said, pointing out our window. Four pairs of eyes followed his finger to look at a lovely beach town resting under glowing sunlight. I drank in the shimmering waves and shining rooftops with glee. "Is that where the Innocence is?"

"Weren't you listening? It's in Britain, which is not on the mainland," said Mana, although the words came out with a tinge of disappointment. Apparently I wasn't the only one wishing it was in this speck of paradise.

"Our b-boat will come tomorrow," Jacob said. "You three can r-relax for a while when we get to Calais." Mana and I were grinning ear to ear for the rest of the trip.

That is, until the Akuma nearly blasted the train off the tracks.

We were at the station unloading our luggage when my half-healed leg collapsed in a fit of pins and needles. "Hey, wait," I called to the two about to go out. That might have actually saved our lives when the door suddenly exploded inwards, peppered by large holes obviously caused by…

"Akuma!" The cry echoed all over the aisles as bullets went flying into the windows. Mana was first at the doorway, but it wasn't worth too much since suddenly the entire carriage tipped dangerously onto two wheels. "Grab onto something!" I yelled at him as the loading pavement began getting smaller. He activated his anti-Akuma weapon and pierced the hard stone with the blades, right where the Akuma were blasting.

"Lenalee, get this car back onto the ground somehow," I cried as I ran out to shield my friend, activating my Innocence as I left. As she leapt out a broken window, I got to Mana just in time as my twirling staff made the bullets ricochet inches from his face. "Chris," he said, relieved.

"Attack now, talk later," I said, hopping off the train to spear two Akuma in a single slashing movement. At that time, I heard Lenalee stomp on the train car's roof and slammed it back onto the rails, freeing Mana's swords and snapping him backwards into the roomy interior. By the time he wobbled out again with a large lump on the back of his head, his mother and I had already cleared the Akuma from the station. I was awed by her ability to leap from one to another, destroying them with what seemed like a single step.

"What was that?" I asked about her anti-Akuma weapon.

"It must be Akuma going for the Innocence in Britain," sighed Lenalee, misinterpreting my question. "I suppose that we aren't going to have such a nice break here."

"Nonsense," I said, staring out into the tempting bright blue waves lit by afternoon sun. "We can have a good time while carrying our Innocence, right?

"Even into water?" asked Mana, pretending to wring out his golden gloves.

"Why not? I can strap my staff to my back, wearing your gloves won't do any harm, and Lenalee can…ah…"

"She's a crystal-type," he informed me. "No worries. But she doesn't want to go the the b-beach, r-right, Mother?"

"It's okay," Lenalee said. "You two can go out and play while I keep a watch out. Salt water would be good for your wounds."

"Well…"

"Come on, Mana. Your mother said yes," I grinned and pulled him by the collar towards the beach. "Wait…!"

"No time!" It was seconds until my feet reached soft, silky sand. Laughing with his objections, I more or less threw him at an incoming wave. He came out sputtering, sodden wet. "My clothes!" he wailed. "And…ouch, it stings!"

"Sit quietly for a bit and your wounds would get used to it," I told him, stripping to my lightest shirt and shorts and running into the water. "And toss your clothes up there; the sun will dry them quickly. Hey, get back in here." A disgruntled Mana stomped past me and sat higher up beside my thick frock coat and other garments. "What?"

"I don't like the water," he grunted.

I pondered this for a while before asking in a teasing voice, "You can't swim, right?" Even from some feet away, I could see him flinch. "S-so what if I can't?"

At first I thought it the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Mana, the exorcist who would face down _Noah_ for others, was unable to swim? It was by chance that I saw the seriousness on his face among the blush. Swimming closer to the shore, I asked him, "Do you want to learn?"

"Eh?"

"Do you want to learn how to swim?" I asked again.

"Mana, just learn from her." We both turned to see Lenalee sit some steps away, toes almost getting wet by incoming waves.

"Hey, you said 'her'," I pointed out, grinning.

"When your shirt is soaked, it's a little easier to tell the difference." I looked down to see that my shirt plastered itself to the very small, subtle curves of my body. "I suppose that when I wear lots of clothing, it covers all of that."

"Even if you had worn less clothing, I think that you would still look like a boy. How old are you again?"

"Fourteen…sort of."

"Even wet, your body is like an eleven-year-old." I drew my mouth in a thin line. Apparently— "Oh, that wasn't an insult; it's good to look young. I'm just pointing that out." She must have read my mind and sensed the irritation, because she then quickly said, "So can you start Mana on lessons? We didn't have much time at the Black Order to practice, so it's not really his fault."

Smiling, I quickly ran out the water and seized Mana, again throwing him into the pristine waters. He tried to get out like last time, but I kept him in the waves while he struggled like a fish. "Although it's easier to start in calm waters, we'll do it the hard way," I said, pulling off his exorcist's coat and tossing to shore. "Now take a deep breath." When he did so, I pulled his feet from under him and removed his boots, too. When he came up spouting seawater, I immediately pushed him backwards. He wasn't even able to say a word before he smacked into the water and instinctively bending forwards…to sink.

Once I hoisted him into the air via the back of his shirt, the first words out his mouth then was "Mother! Chris is drowning me!"

"I'm…sure that he has a reason," Lenalee replied from the dry shore.

I mentally rolled my eyes at the pronoun. "We aren't even four feet deep yet; stop whining. Besides, this is a lesson," I said, lightly pinching his nose. "If you want to stay alive, do not use this. That's rule number one. Number two is to try not to touch your feet."

"But I wasn't—"

"Which means that if you're on your back, _do not_ bend forwards. Didn't you notice that when you did, you sunk?"

"Well…"

"There you go. Oh, and do you have _any_ experience at all in swimming?"

"Ah, I know…nothing," he said depressingly.

"Not even a doggy paddle?"

"No…" I fought down the urge to laugh while I dipped into deeper water. "So watch and learn. You're expected to copy this after I finish."

I made sure his eyes weren't wandering as I started a simple front crawl, head swiveling down and up to breathe as my hands arced overhead. Stopping to tread water, I told him, "Make sure to keep your breathing even, though it will get fast. Lift your entire arm over the water when you do so. Those are the two keys to success with this style."

"Even breathing, dry arm," Mana said as he tried to mimic my movements in the air. I swam over to him and shoved him into the water. "Now copy. No! Higher arms!"

I made him do laps, lopsided though they were, until the sun turned red and began to set. And even then he did some odd mix of front crawl and doggy paddle that barely kept him afloat. "Don't skim the water, and at least get your face wet," I sighed, plunging him into the sea again. When he came up dripping wet and started to do his flimsy paddle, his mother's voice echoed down towards us.

"Mana, Chris, take a break for dinner!"

"About time!" gasped the sodden exorcist, running out of the water as best he could. I shook my head in tired irritation, the emotion bubbling out of my mouth as, "Became lazy and wanted to get back on land already?"

Everything froze. "Eh?" I asked nobody in particular. Then turned around when someone splashed into the water again.

"Mana…"

My words must have hit him hard, because now he was attempting the front crawl with a new resolve. He wasn't just following my directions now; I could see him adjusting the angle of his raised arms and the pattern of breathe, hold, breathe, hold.

"Chris? What is he—?"

"Shh. I think he's finally using what I've been drilling into his head all day," I said to Lenalee, who replied simply, "Then I suppose that I should request a dinner on the beach."

"Please do. We'll be here for a while."


	7. Chapter 7

"When you said that our boat would arrive in three days, Jacob, I was thinking about one with a motor."

"I'm s-sorry, but most of the o-other b-boats had been sunk by A-Akuma when I went to retrieve it, and the ferries were among t-them."

Grunting with the effort, I pulled the thick oars back and drew them across the water while the bright sun glared down at our group of four. The English Channel glittered around us, while the beach of Calais was merely a far-off memory.

"How are the plugs doing?" I asked the other two. Mana looked up from my feet, each hand and foot pressing down a wad of cork. "No water's coming in; that's a relief."

"It's fine here," said Lenalee, who was doing the same.

I clamped an oar between my knees to wipe sweat from my forehead. "For springtime, it's unusually warm today. Is it worst with you two?" I asked, looking at their dark hair and clothes.

"I've already gotten used to it," smiled Lenalee. "But are you sure that it's fine for you to keep wearing that heavy coat?" she asked, inquiring about the battered emerald green frock coat that fell to my knees.

"It's okay, really. I've traveled through the Sahara with this on." I grinned at their faces.

"What…? So how many other clothes are you wearing under that?"

I pondered the number as I went back to rowing. "I think it's about four, not including underclothes." The effect was like as if the answer had become a hammer and whacked all three on the head. Cutting through the ensuing clamor, I asked Jacob, "About how much time do we have until we can see land?"

"Sick of water already, Chris?" Mana teased.

"No; just tired. If you hadn't noticed, I was rowing nonstop since before dawn, and we just finished lunch."

The Finder consulted his maps and compass. "I can g-guess it's about another hour or so, if the w-weather holds." We all groaned, even as a little puddle went _splat_ on the glass covering the spinning needle. "At least we aren't caught in a storm," said Lenalee, watching the spiraling birds overhead.

"Don't j-jinx us now, Miss E-Exorcist," Jacob suggested, trying to wipe his compass clean.

"That's a little late," I said, putting down the oars and staring off the side of the boat. Everyone followed my gaze to a small dot in the distance, slowly growing bigger until we could easily see… "Oh, no; it's Akuma!"

"If they attack us here, the boat will definitely sink!"

"Mother, you handle the Akuma while Chris and I protect the boat," said Mana. "Innocence, activate!"

"Innocence, activate!" we echoed.

I slid over to the middle of our little craft to cover the leaks as Lenalee leapt into the sky, spearing Akuma upon jumping on their heads. Mana extended his blades to spear nearby Akuma while I covered him and the boat from bullets. Jacob took over my seat and attempted to get us closer to the island for a better fighting chance. This way, the four of us kept the Akuma at bay as we inched closer to Britain.

But when another crowd took over the skies, Lenalee couldn't keep more from passing her and her high-heel anti-Akuma weapon. I was forced to free one hand of ribbons and split my staff in two. "Heaven's Leaves; winter," I cried, sending the cloud at the Akuma around us with my right as my left knocked bullets into the Channel. More scraps of metal sunk into the waters then, but when yet _another_ band flew from France, one bullet from hundreds reached our boat.

All three of us were thrown overboard as over half of the timber instantly disintegrated in flames and debris. But when I heard a familiar voice call out, "Help! I can't swim!" I slapped the panicking Mana as hard as I could.

"Idiot! I just gave you lessons!" While I left him to remember his laps, I turned to Jacob, who was treading water neatly despite all his wet clothes. "Can you seal off the Akuma?"

"I t-think I can, if it didn't get too w-wet." An idea fluttered into mind as he successfully created a cube of pure white light around a passing level one. "And they can be touched physically? And moved?"

"Yes, if it is not by anti-Akuma weapons."

"Darn." If I couldn't use my staff fragments to do it, how can I…wait…

I shattered the rest of my staff and this time maneuvered the entire bunch underwater. Mana, who was now actually floating on his back, asked what I was doing.

"I've wanted to try this for a while," I said. "But I haven't given it a test trial; catch me if I fall."

"What are you—?" he said as I raised both my arms, teeth gritted together in worry.

But I didn't need to be anxious; it worked like a charm. The shards that had gathered under my foot shot me through the air as I rode on a cloud of my anti-Akuma weapon. Like a sleek arrow, I flew towards the sky and arced onto a nearby Akuma. With much more arm room and dryer ribbons, I orchestrated the shards with better control than from the Channel, quickly destroying all the nearby Akuma before telling Jacob to seal the one I was stepping on.

He did so without a pause, encasing it with white light as I jumped to avoid being stuck in there too. "And down you go," I said, falling down to smash the entire cube into the water with the barrier still intact. It stopped about a head or so into the water about three meters away from the two in the water as I landed on its raised pinnacle. "Come on! It's safer to stay on this!"

Yet even as I waved them over, a crowd of Akuma swept towards the three of us. Mana saw and panicked, bending forwards in an attempt to flip over, the idiot. Jacob turned to try and surface him, leaving the two vulnerable to attack. I tried piercing as many of the machines as I could, but…!

"Innocence, level two, activate!"

The wind was knocked out of me as Lenalee suddenly flew out of nowhere and snatched me up around the waist with Mana and Jacob soon joining, all while running _very_, _very_ fast, perhaps even at supersonic speeds. Pulling my head up with difficulty, I then noticed that we were approaching land. White cliffs soon loomed above us as we neared the actual island.

Lenalee deactivated her anti-Akuma weapon upon setting the three of us on the rocky shore above the cliffs, having leapt up the natural walls with a single bound. She was panting hard when she did so. "Mother, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Lenalee huffed, standing easily. "I just didn't expect the Akuma to number so many."

"I didn't either," I said, crouching on the soil to pull my staff upwards from the grass and deactivating it. "But at least here we have a better fighting chance. We are on Britain, right?"

Beside me, Jacob nodded. "At the t-town of D-Dover." I looked behind me to notice the houses and harbor that seemed to stand still while we stared back, even though we could see that the streets were busy with people. Looking back over the horizon, though, we all saw the crowd of Akuma approaching fast.

"Jacob, you go warn the townspeople about the Akuma. We'll hold the fort." The Finder nodded and took off.

"Lenalee, can you go out to sea to attack them again?"

"Of course."

"Mana, you head down to the harbor, all right?"

"I understand."

"And I will cover the area between here and the harbor; we need to get all those Akuma! Innocence…"

"…activate!" Lashings of light cut through the afternoon as we all stood ready to fight; to protect the town behind us.

"Here we go!"

Lenalee and Mana split from me as I splintered my staff again and waited for the Akuma to come into range. Once they did, I cut down the first line with a scythe-like slash of the shards. Soon I found that there were now level twos among the ones, and they endured most of the first or second widespread attacks I inflicted. A handful actually required me to recall a small bit of staff to cut them through myself.

But the speed the shards could achieve was too slow against the crowding Akuma, dangerous as they were. More and more were being spared as I took time to turn the branches around to strike again. They were getting close enough for me to actually hear some of the higher levels' whispers. "Get the Innocence…"

"Kill the exorcist…"

"Retrieve bo—"

Then my entire staff had to be recalled as a level two dashed towards me with bloodlust in its eyes, view enough to shut my ears to every whispery voice. Spearing it through inches from my face, I emerged from the explosion to see _so many Akuma_ before me. And everything seemed to numb.

In the distance, I could see Lenalee kick down Akuma one by one, catching those nearest her. But they were getting smarter and floated away from her, forcing her to use more energy in leaping from one to the distancing other.

Down at the harbor, Mana was handling his own parade of Akuma, the golden swords and silver blades sparkling with sunlight as he slashed and hacked small holes in the black mass even as he could see them fill before his eyes.

As anger and frustration flowed through me, I felt my body tingle with the emotions. As I watched, the ribbons on my hand seemed to feed on the fury and slowly blurred from winter black to a vivid, bright green reminiscent of new grass. Unfurling the emerald bands, I instinctively threw my staff into the air, into the bright sunlight of a winter passed.

"Heaven's Leaves," I called, "Spring!"

Razor-sharp flower petals of every shape and style burst from my anti-Akuma weapon. Slim and swift, they were nearly invisible when I thrust the ribbons forward and sliced through an entire row of the incoming Akuma with every slight turn and twist of my hands. Gleefully directing my new shuriken-like slivers, I noted that for their speed, the petals didn't obviously destroy as well as the branches. It was the quickness and sharpness that were the points calling them dangerous, enabling me to use the entire group as a single, deadly swarm to slice through the Akuma as if they weren't there, piercing so many holes in their bodies that they were too injured to continue existing in that form.

Like a comet made of the night sky, it plunged in and out of sight as it entered and exited with an explosion. Without a reason why, I suddenly tossed them all into a thin cloud overhead and quickly grasped the tips of my ribbons in a tight fist. The petals grouped together into a cloud of five-petal flowers, their centers made up of a piece of crystal from the top of my staff, and fell much faster than any bloom I've seen…and exploded upon contact with the Akuma, _un_like any bloom I've seen. Each ten-foot explosion didn't harm the petals or crystal, but rather just changed them back into their 'winter' form and slightly colored my ribbons dark again.

Once my arms were wrapped from elbow to fingertip in black, only a straggling few Akuma were left, cleared away easily by Lenalee as I hurryingly ran to Mana's side down by the harbor to help clear his dwindling crowd, cheating a little by riding my anti-Akuma weapon down the cliffs.

Mana was struggling to avoid a rain of bullets when I crashed into a thick group of the shooters, spinning once reaching the center to cut a large sphere of space free while making sure the exorcist behind me wouldn't get hit accidentally. As for the results: there was a large swath of smoke as quite a few Akuma exploded in our area, pierced by a branch or ten. Mana had hidden behind his anti-Akuma weapon, the twelve blades having had grown to an egg-like shield that surrounded his entire body.

I hit it with my foot (which actually hurt) and yelled, "You can come out now." Sheepishly, Mana unfolded the mesh of gold and silver to stand beside me, gazing bemused at the drastically reduced number of Akuma. "Can I?" he asked.

"Of course not," I replied, changing the branches into a staff and leaping up to charge the remaining party.


	8. Chapter 8

"For an entire _crown_."

"Oh, not again," I groaned.

"But, really; an entire crown…"

"The phenomenon is in London, which was still quite a while into the island. If we hadn't made it in time to find a carriage from Canterbury, we'd take ages to get there as is. And besides, we might have spent an entire crown in supplies for the trip there anyway. So would you prefer to walk?" I asked.

Mana turned his head to look out the jolting window where fields and roadway items passed by in swatches of color as rain pelted the windows. "When you put it that way…"

"We'll be t-there in no time, n-now."

"Good to know, Jacob. Besides, I could easily spare a coin for comfort; I've been deprived of it for too long."

"Some fine exorcist you are, Chris," chuckled Mana. "Can't even stand a day in a boat, nor a forest."

I rolled my eyes. "The boat's oars were riddled with holes and the sun was shining fiercely. The forest, if I can recall correctly, was thicker than your head." This brought another round of laughter from the four of us, Mana included, and soon the dangers of our mission seemed to have been left behind in Dover.

Of course, the three or four hours it took for us to see the sprawling city passed by too soon, as well as the hour or so it took for us to yell at the seemingly-deaf coachman to stop once we crossed the border. My foot splashed into a puddle as we unloaded our suitcases and walked down the cobbled roads of Central London.

However, the rain suddenly became heavier, coming down in sheets rather than the simple droplets from arrival. We ran through the streets with clothes getting wetter and wetter, patience wearing thinner and thinner with our soles.

"Are there _any_ open inns around here?" I grumbled. Then a sliver of light caught my eye.

Running up to its source and nearly slipping off the steps, I found that a door had been left open. And music…sweet flute music was seeping through, mingling in my ears with an echo bouncing around my head like a feeling of too much running. Exhilaration fluttered through my bones in a soaring feeling of, say, bringing up wings for a first flight. But the sound was interrupted when the door slammed shut on my nose.

"Oh, well," said Mana, looking at the elegant stone pillars and decorations. "You can't expect a place like this to be open to the public at a time like this."

"No, there was a flautist inside, playing music," I said, bringing an imaginary flute to my lips and playing an imaginary song.

"That's because this is the Royal Italian Opera," said Lenalee, taking in the physical sophistication as well as my comment. "It's quite popular. Perhaps we can go in later when they have a show."

"Yes, let's," Mana said, "Right after we properly get dry and find the Innocence."

"Whichever comes first," I muttered, wiping rain from my sore nose. We all sighed, but kept on going for what seemed like an eternity (Was London always so big?) until a little cozy place thankfully nearby accepted our coins with a nod and left us to a rather large room.

"It's a nice enough place," I murmured, brushing the blankets back to check for bedbugs. "No pests."

"And the view is of the Thames," commented Lenalee, throwing the curtains outwards and tying them back to look out the window. "Although through this storm nobody could really see anything."

"Indeed," sighed Mana, throwing himself on a bed to have dust erupt in a thick cloud around him. "Oops," he coughed, jumping up right away.

"Now you've done it," I said, going over to the window and unlatching the tightly jammed bar for some air, no matter how wet it was. Taking great gulps of a mix between water and oxygen, I was about to head back into the powdery inside when something caught my blurry sight. "It can't be," I muttered. "Lenalee, Mana, what is that out there?"

The two exorcists ran to my side and looked into the clouds where I pointed to a well-camouflaged grey sphere descending towards London. "It's an Akuma!" exclaimed Mana. "Quick, let's—"

We all stopped as a familiar sound floated almost mist-like through the rain. The sound of a flute whispered its song just barely inside the scope of our hearing, yet kept that volume whether we were near the window or at the door. Like an echo of rainy days, I felt a slight gloom inside, as well as a strand of hope in the weather nourishing lives through the crystal droplets.

I suddenly dropped to the floor when the sound suddenly exploded into a high-pitched squeal, piercing and harsh, as if the innocent droplets suddenly froze into icicles and threw themselves at my ears. It hurt so bad, I felt like doing anything to stop…

"Chris! Hey, what's wrong?" The screech broke off in a gurgle of flute nonsense as Mana shook my shoulders, breaking through the sound waves with his voice. Panting, I removed my hands from my head as Lenalee and Jacob carefully carried me to a bed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said, wheezing slightly. "What happened?"

"The flute was playing and all of a sudden, you fell down. But what was odd was that when you fell, there wasn't a sound to prove that you did anything; we could only see and not hear."

"Then I started shaking you and the music stopped," added Mana. Groaning, I sat up again and looked out the window, asking the closest to there, Lenalee, "Where's the Akuma?"

All that was left was a quickly disappearing cloud of dust and black matter, she says.

"It's Innocence," we all said at once.

Lenalee stood up. "Jacob and I will look over the city; you two stay here just in case we need backup. Stay safe." Without even answering Mana's objections, she headed out the door with the Finder at her heels.

Silence reigned as the door shut with a _squeak_, the room vibrating with the thought _'They just ditched us'_ everywhere. "So what are we supposed to do while they are gone?" I asked.

"I do not know," replied Mana. "Oh! I could show you my golem." Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a small bat-shaped device I knew to be made for transmitting and communication. It fluttered upon reaching air, the circular face and stringy body turning to record its surroundings. "Mother just gave it to me. I know it's sort of silly, but I named it Tim, after my father's."

"Does it bite?" I asked, memories of the little golden ball of teeth preventing me from approaching.

"It doesn't even have a mouth. But it can do this." When Mana's fingers stroked its head, the golem flew backwards and wrapped its wings around its owner's arm, a lens snapping into position.

"Very nice."

"Yeah; it's the newest model." He swelled with pride, as if being a guinea pig was worth mentioning like a title. "The body can form into almost everything, and it can carry Innocence if commanded to. They're faster, more agile, and can bypass a group of Akuma without being noticed."

"And who told you that?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"My uncle, Komui. He's the chief of the Black Order and loves inventing stuff. Once he gave me a robot for my birthday."

"What happened to it?"

"It, ah, demolished half the kitchen and was broken by the chefs there."

"The Komlins were always big trouble," I sighed, recalling a story Teacher told about a giant robot that attempted to do surgery on him and his Innocence. "I hope his golems are better than his other inventions."

"They aren't _that_ bad!"

"Oh, really?"

But Mana didn't get a chance to answer as the floor suddenly explodes from under us. Projectiles shattered the floor and wall as we back-flipped (me nearly falling over doing so) into the doorway and ran downstairs. Dashing into the still-rainy streets, I skid some length before seeing the level two demolishing the second floor still. "Innocence, activate!" I cried, charging the square shadow with my dark staff in hand. Beside me, Mana matched my footsteps with golden swords gleaming.

Yet even as we both took a swing at it, the square flattened and we sailed towards the shattered bedroom. I felt like swearing as it suddenly opened to show its real shape: a giant book with hands and a bookmark-like…gun, it looked like. And it was pointed at us.

"Exorcists!" it bellowed in glee. "Eat my words!" And with that, every alphabetical symbol of every language existing, punctuation included, began flying out at the cornered us as the Akuma began firing. A 'T' nearly took my head off as I rolled away just to get pinned to the floor with a 'U'. Mana sliced it apart as he ran by, his other hand holding off a new stream of kanji from the bookmark. "Don't sleep now," he grinned.

"Ha ha," I sarcastically replied, tossing my staff upwards to see the letters practically dissolve upon contact. "Heaven's Leaves; spring!"

The shuriken leaves sliced and diced the various characters until they were even smaller than katakana, then passed through the fluttering confetti to cut right into the book with a heavy _thock_. I grasped the green ribbons on my left and blew half of them into winter, carrying the Akuma with them.

"Let's leave the area; go into somewhere less occupied," I said, turning to Mana as the smoke disappeared slowly from view. "Otherwise the other Akuma would have a chance to take lives other than our own." He stared at my emerald-clad right hand for a second; a strange, strained second, before leaping out the shattered wall and into the rain. I followed, leaping into his footsteps on the rooftops as we headed south and soon catching up despite the downpour. _Thank you for the practice, Teacher_, I thought.

"What's wrong?" I asked upon seeing his pale face.

"Did you find the level two so quickly? Or did you just not tell me?" The seriousness in his voice would have sent me in a fit of laughter if it wasn't for the fact that if I would have gotten a mouthful of water if I did. So instead, I asked in a level voice, "No, I don't think it's a level two; it's just another form. It's like how Teacher's first anti-Akuma weapon could change form split-second with his will. Only mine isn't as transformative or as fast to change," I added, looking at the cloud of leaves and petals almost indistinguishable from each other while flying alongside.

"Oh."

"What's the matter? Jealous?"

The ensuing silence wasn't as quiet in reality; the blush on his cheeks said enough. I smiled bemusedly at the strange emotions dancing on his face as we kept running towards the Thames River.

I took a powerful leap across the water, branches and petals assisting my flight, and landed on all fours on the opposite shore. Mana followed on my heels while I led him across a cloud of black shards, sliding to a stop beside me with a horrible screech of his swords. We both turned around to see the black crowd of Akuma that naturally followed the two of us. I was about to charge the mass when Mana suddenly bellowed the most impressive thing I've heard from him so far.

"I won't let you have our Innocence!" With that, he extended his silver and gold blades and raked them though the swarm. Some sort of fury must have been instilled in that attack, I thought, since once the rain washed away the large clouds of explosion smoke, I realized that there were no Akuma left before us. Sealing the shards back into a staff form, I turned to Mana with shock.

"Let's go," he said with seriousness about the two words, and began leaping towards the nearby bridge, unwilling to hop the length of the river without a rooftop to perch on. I did, however, and so I was the one being caught up to soon enough. "Where do you think they went?" I asked Mana.

"They could be anywhere," he sighed. But 'anywhere' was whittled down to 'back towards our lodgings' when another explosion blew the sky apart some streets away from the original battle site. Stopping on a dormant chimney, Mana and I watched as a tiny green flame flew back and forth to dark spheres. A touch set them off like bombs' lit fuses.

"It's Mother!" Mana shouted. "Quick, over th—"

"Where?" asked a deep, throaty voice. We turned around to see a frog-like Akuma squatting behind us, mechanical body shining with water so that we could almost see our own reflections on it. "Over there is nowhere," he continued. "We are right here, and we will fight like so!" With a strong push, the level two leapt into the air and crashed down on the roof, splintering two floors like a twig. Screams split the night air from below.

"Wait!" I cried as he jumped into the clouds again. "Don't fall on the houses!" Thinking not so clearly, I stood my staff upright, the shining white crystal point ready to impale him upon impact. Suddenly, silver claws tore me from my position mere seconds before the heavy mass fell on the opaque gem.

As the frog slammed into the building opposite, I turned on Mana, who was now panting beside me on the slick rooftop. "What did you do that for?! If I had stayed there, I would have destroyed that Akuma!"

"At the cost of your life? I don't think so." The words made me feel like shaking him; he was so stupid for saying that. "Idiot! He would have died before reaching me."

"How could you say for sure? The way I saw it, you would have been flattened, the staff would only be stuck in his body, and the world would be short an exorcist just because a single house was in danger!" About to spurt a fountain of profanity at his god-like know-it-all-ness, I was stopped when the Akuma emerged from the splinters of the house.

"He's right, you know. Since you're alive, now I get to see how many houses I can destroy before leaving!" It flew into the air and came down meteor-like between Mana and me, bouncing away through London with a trail of roof holes quickly growing longer behind it.

"After it!" I yelled. "Heaven's Leaves; spring!" With a single sweep of my arms, I created a cloud of black petals behind both of us and shot forwards with amazing speed, easily gaining on the Akuma. Mana, who was closest, swung his blades at the seemingly unprotected back. Not even a nick was born from his slashing; instead, a thin tongue twirled out of its mouth and wrapped around the smooth wrist of Mana's glove and tried to pull it off. About to slice it off, I had a small handful of petals ready when he cut through it himself and brought down both his hands in a furious point-blank cut into the neck area of the Akuma.

However, the hard shell of its back held and the hard slash only ended up slamming the frog into the street, a large dent collecting rainwater as we came down on it. Mana acted faster than I did and thrust the golden sword on his right into the depression, the power of anger driving the two-foot blade all the way through to his glove.

The explosion had us catapulted back to the rooftops where we again saw the bright green will-o-the-wisp dancing not too far from our position. Although the deluge, now seemingly heavier than ever, made me wants to leap down and run through the semi-shielded alleyway, it didn't seem to affect my friend at all. I followed Mana across the rooftops, passing by the ten or so houses that the frog Akuma jumped into before we destroyed it.

Lenalee was finishing the last of the level ones that she encountered when we arrived. She sighed with relief when Mana and I landed beside her on a nearby chimney. "Thank goodness you two are safe; I saw the wrecked boardinghouse and was wondering where you were when the Akuma arrived."

"We're fine, I think," I said. "Where's Jacob?"

"Down h-here." We all joined him in an alleyway rather lacking in empty space, yet thankfully dry. I wrung out my weighted coat to form another puddle around my shoes as everyone just shook the water out of their faces, their specialized Black Order issue clothes having been waterproofed among its other features.

"So what do we do?" I asked nobody in particular, deactivating my anti-Akuma weapon.

"We take a trip to the theatre, of course," replied Lenalee, turning to the main street.

By some fluke of luck, we made it back to the Royal Italian Opera after getting lost only three times. I guess that Lenalee's sense of direction was much better than Teacher's.

"Excuse me, but we are closed for the eveni— oh! Miss Exorcist! Please, do come in; the rain is treacherous tonight. Can I help you?" I snuck a peek behind Lenalee's back. The actor who opened the door was a handsome fellow; a real lady's charmer especially in the fancy gold-weave doublet and rapier at his hip. But no flute.

"Sir," said Mana, stepping up. "Do you have a flautist in the theatre?"

"Oh, you mean Zephyr?"

"Does he play the flute?"

"Only one in this place," the man said. "But, God bless him, that man has a real gift. Can play the audience to tears if it was called for."

"Where is this Zephyr? I need a word with him."

"Oh, he's probably practicing outside or near the stairs," he said, thrusting a thumb to a well-hidden stairway behind a lot of props. "You'll hear him before you see; real shadowy, he is. And he can make it seem like the music's coming from somewhere else."

"Good to know," smiled Mana. "Come on, let's find him. He's somewhere on a stairway; it shouldn't be that hard."

But once we put a single foot on the staircase, I immediately found Mana's comment false. The stairs themselves seemed to twist and toss, making stomachs lurch. I planted my staff firmly on the floor, shutting my eyes to try and rid myself of the obvious illusion. Or was it not one? "Stay calm," I muttered to myself. "At least you know for sure this Zephyr has Innocence; just find a way to find him."

"Who are you?"

I barely avoided opening my eyes as flute music began flowing through my ears, head suddenly pounding with a four-note beat. "My name is Chris; I'm an accommodator of Innocence. Are you called Zephyr?"

"Yes. What do you want of me?" the music asked.

"Just a few answers to our questions. Do you know what Innocence is?"

"…I do." I didn't know what to make of his answer, but asked on a whim, "Are you an exorcist?"

"My father called me that."

"Who's your father? Where is he?"

"In the ground for trying to send me to the Black Order. Are you going to take me there, too?" I tried holding back tears as suddenly, the music slowed into a tune that was…pure fear distilled into sound. Shivering, I replied, "Not if you don't want to. Although it would help us if you do."

"You're different from the others. The black people and white people; they don't say things like that. They say, Come along, we need you, and they hurt me. They hurt my flute. Are you different because you wear green?"

"Under that green," I said, "I'm wearing black pants and a white shirt." The music dipped a little deeper into emotions. "But…can you let my friends go?"

"But they are black and white. They need to sleep with their companions. Sleep forever, for trying to hurt me."

"Let them go, please," I repeated, instinctively reaching backwards for any grip on them, but found myself touching thin air. "Where…did they go?"

"They…fell asleep."

As it was me doing the thinking, the first thought that came to mind was that the flautist had…ah…

"No, it is not death." I let out my breath in relief. "But they will not awaken until I say so."

"Suspension," I muttered to myself, eyes itching to open and see where I am. But some instinct told me that if I did so, the world around me would disappear. "Are you going to put me to sleep also?"

The flute music eased up a little. "Do you want to go to sleep?"

"No, I have to reach the Black Order with my friends. It's what I need to do, being an accommodator." _My duty_, I thought, _as Teacher's apprentice_. Thinking that, I suddenly asked, "Do you want to come with me?"

The music flew into a tossing mix of confusion. "What?"

"Do you want to come with me?" I repeated. "I promise you that once we get there, you'll be safe."

"But I'm safe here, too."

"Really?" I persisted. "Then why do you put all your fears to sleep instead of dealing with them?" Not even a semi-second passed before panicking trills and repetition exploded into my ears. "No, no! You're trying to take me away, too!"

"I won't; I'm just pointing out that you're probably better off with people like you."

Wind suddenly blew me backwards. I fell to the ground trying to stay in my place. "Stop talking! Stop talking! I'm not safe there; people die when they enter the Black Order!"

"No, people die naturally," I said, suddenly feeling a foot settle over what seemed like the edge of the floor I was lying on. "If you handle Innocence, you're more likely to die early, yes, but isn't it safer when you have friends that are able to protect you?"

"No! I can protect my friends from the demons; I alone!"

Too soon, the wind was close to having pushed my knee over the edge. Like a maniac, I struggled against the wind, but couldn't tell where the edge was. Slowly, I opened my eyes a hair's width at a time. A shadowy figure was sitting not too far in front of me on a floor that looked like the grand staff on sheet music. A flute of bright blue crystal was on its lips, pouring notes along the five lines below it. Straining to move, I built up all my energy into my legs and…

Pure, softly humming silence enclosed Zephyr and me as I pressed my hands over his mouth, knocking the mouthpiece from his lips. Sitting on his stomach to prevent his escape, I took in the beautiful quiet for a moment before slowly sliding off him. "Please," I whispered. "We both have friends; we both want to stay with them forever. At least let us go and we'll never breathe a word of this."

As I had time to take a good look, I noted that Zephyr was hardly older than an adolescent, perhaps in his early twenties. He was thin and reed-like, with long, slender fingers that looked lost without the flute. A mop of wind-blown blond hair covered his neck and forehead, casting shadows over his slowly calming stormy blue-grey eyes.

Those eyes closed as he said in a hoarse voice, "Please leave. Your friends are waiting outside." The floor suddenly shattered underfoot, notes and clefs and sharps falling, falling…

"I hope we'll never meet again," I heard Zephyr whisper.


	9. Chapter 9

The rain came down cold and hard on my face. _Uncomfortable bed_, I thought dazedly, water melding all that I could see into a blurry mess. My memories were also just as fuzzy; fuzzy like a satin-lined box locked shut.

_Click_.

"Zephyr!" I gasped.

"Say again?" Beside me, Mana sat up groggily, hands in his tangled brown hair. "Ouch; I think I hit my head really hard somehow…I can't remember a thing." On my other side, Lenalee and Jacob were stirring, but both could recall that we went into the Royal Italian Opera and then…nothing. Was I the only one who remembered the flute-playing exorcist?

"How d-did we end up _here_?" Jacob suddenly asked. We looked around for once and suddenly noticed that we were back at the bridge where Mana and I fought the Akuma after the boardinghouse, suitcases and all stacked neatly around us. The sun was just peeking through clear skies over the river. "Can somebody tell me what happened at the opera house?" asked Lenalee, looking through her bag.

I did the same, searching through my meager belongings to find that everything was right where they were when we entered the city, even though I was sure that the Akuma attack at the boardinghouse had buried them in rubble and dust. "Well, I think I'm the only one who remembers anything, aren't I?"

"It seems like it," Mana agreed, face turned from me.

I began to give a brief explanation, but then remembered the words that probably set us all free: '…never breathe a word of this.'

"Ah, actually, I can't say. But I can tell you that the Innocence here is safe."

"I don't know about this…" said Mana doubtfully.

"Trust me. Well, at least for this moment in time." Three pairs of eyes gave me a confused stare. "The Innocence has an accommodator: the flute player, Zephyr, remember? But he's determined to hold off the Akuma in the entire city of London." _I'm sorry, Zephyr_.

"That's close to impossible," said Lenalee, shaking her head. "London is an extremely large city. Even if this exorcist can use his abilities on far-off regions like we saw last night, that's just able to take out a small group at most. If Akuma come in numbers almost siege-like…" What she was suggesting nearly knocked me off my feet. "If Zephyr falls, then all of London will go down with him," I said.

Lenalee took on a serious face. "And seeing as the Akuma I fought yesterday were almost too much for me to handle, there's a good possibility of the scenario happening in the next week or so; perhaps even tomorrow."

"So w-we're staying in L-London?"

"If only to protect it until a proper exorcist can arrive. Jacob, make the calls to send one over here, and alert my uncle of what's happening."

"Yes, Master Exorcist."

"So what are we supposed to do in the four or so days it takes for that person to get here?" I asked Mana.

"Survive both the Akuma and the stubborn exorcist," he sighed. "And I'm more worried about the latter."

"Because we're staying in 'his' city?"

"Exactly."

"No matter," I said. "Let's discuss this over breakfast…after we find another room." Starting to walk, I was almost halfway across the bridge when it exploded behind me. "What the…?" I cried.

"It's Akuma; level two!" I heard Mana yell from behind the dust cloud. Then he suddenly added, "But don't move; I'll handle it!"

"But I want to—" I couldn't finish as a sudden gust of wind ravaged the smoke, clearing my view. Mana had run behind the quintet of Akuma that destroyed the bridge and speared two in the back with only his golden swords, actual hands some two meters behind them. His smaller blades pointed at the level twos, hands curling them so that the fingertips' blades' formed the points of a rough pentagon. I watched with wide eyes as the silver started glowing brightly, energy gathering at the center of both hands. The Akuma who suddenly realized what was happening (which were the snagged ones) tried to flee, but were stuck fast somehow by the golden swords, blocking the view from its three comrades.

Mana gave a weak smile. "I think it's charged enough," he said, the golden part of his anti-Akuma weapon suddenly afire with light. "Sunlit Moonshine!"

The thick beams of silver light smashed into all five of the level two Akuma, destroying them in an instant. The recoil slammed Mana into me and bowled the two of us some ten meters back into the city as the glittering comet of gold and silver plowed easily through the nearby trees before flying into the sky, leaving neat tunnels through the canopy.

The exorcist sat up. "So what did you think of that? I'd say that it was better than your leaves," he grinned childishly.

"The only thing I can say is," I said softly at first, "Why didn't you use it earlier?!" With the last word, I added a punch to the smiling face that was just hard enough to knock him over.

Leaping to his feet, Mana retorted, "I was being preservative!"

"For what reason? Back down in Dover, you would have been done for if I hadn't come to save you."

"I was perfectly safe."

"Behind the walls of your anti-Akuma egg like a little babe," I snorted. Mana marched forward with a fist in the air, but his mother landed between us before he could land a blow. "You two are always at each other's necks now. Has something happened between both of you?"

"Nothing a well-deserved bruise can't solve," grunted Mana, trying to get past Lenalee. She sighed and said, "Jacob, can you hold my son's wrists?"

"O-of course, Miss Exorcist," he replied, doing so while she held _my_ wrists in a surprisingly strong grip and led me to the broken part of the bridge, Jacob following. I looked at my feet to see the water, still cold with evening's chill, flow uncomfortably close. "Wait," I began as she kicked away my staff, "What are you—?" A simple shuffle of the feet, an uncurling of hands, and I was tossed into the high-tide Thames with Mana not far behind.

Sharp words definitely not proper for young girls like me (or most boys either) spilled out my mouth faster than the waves pushed us. However, despite the noise I spat at nobody in particular, I couldn't help but notice that Mana didn't mirror my actions. Turning around, I then realized that…

"You've got to be kidding me," I snorted, taking a deep breath and diving underwater.

Sure enough, when I opened my eyes there he floated about a meter below my foot, not even trying to swim. Although he did what one usually should do when drowning, here in the fast Thames it would mainly just drag him down. Going up for one more breath, I dove down and seized Mana's wrist. With his weight a factor against me with cold and current, I just focused on reaching the seemingly faraway surface.

But water was a powerful force, and the river seemed determined to keep me and Mana in its dungeon. Bubbles frothed from my mouth as I ran out of air. I was sorely tempted to let him go and retrieve him later, but who knows how far he might flow from me if I did? Salt flooding my mouth, I kicked and thrashed with something deep inside powering every move of resisting the freezing water. It seemed like an eternity in a world of aqua and abyss…

_Splash! _Icy air slashed at my skin as I clawed at the sky suddenly awash with the warm colors of dawn. With a hand around Mana's wrist, I flopped across the surface and somehow pulled myself onto the shore, dragging my…friend behind me. Throwing a glance, I saw that his skin was pale, but not blue. I silently thanked the river for not drowning him to the extent that I have to breathe air into him again. Shuddering with the thought, I was feeling pins and needles already when Lenalee and Jacob exploded out of the bushes; I nearly fell back in again with surprise.

Once we both were wrapped in towels and Mana awoke with a geyser of water spouting out his mouth, I felt much better. Good enough to start stinging Lenalee, at least.

"You were willing to drown your own son to have us make up?" I yelled, plowing through even as I saw her flinch. "Have you even considered what would have happened if I hadn't wanted to save him? What kind of mother are you?"

She looked so close to crying after I finished. "I've seen too much happen between friends, but have faith in the power of that bond," she said simply, although I saw the strain in her face. "You would have given your life to Mana, Chris. And I know he feels the same."

"Do not," he pouted.

"Then why did you use Sunlit Moonshine?" Lenalee asked, turning to her son. "You can't even control it properly yet; the try-out at your last birthday would have destroyed the entire building if your father and the other exorcists were there."

"Stop reminding me of whatever I did wrong, can't you? I'm not perfect like you or Father…or Chris, as a matter of fact. It's obvious that you think he's better than I am."

"She," I said in a bored tone.

"Whatever." Sigh. "Never mind; let's just go to sleep right now, morning or not, and wake up like none of this ever happened," he said, curling up right then and there.

"Agreed," nodded Jacob, immediately crawling between the roots of a nearby tree. I was about to follow suit when a hand sat itself on my shoulder. Lenalee was nodding me away towards the sunlit shore.

Once I sat down in the view of the river, I was immediately smothered by a sudden hug. "Lenalee!" I choked.

"Thank you so much for rescuing Mana! I didn't really know why I threw the two of you in the Thames, and when he immediately sank…I…I…"

"Calm down, I understand. At least it wasn't entirely pointless."

"I don't know anything about parenting; even now, when he's sixteen years old, I'm confused as to whether to treat him as my son or as an exorcist. And I don't know how to fuss over a son, if it came to that; especially when he's acting so…"

"Strutty?" I offered.

"Kind of," she laughed. "But…sometimes I wonder if he really is Allen's and my son. He has so much pride…sometimes he seems to fight just to impress people. How was your relation with Allen?"

"Huh?"

"Did you see him as a father of sorts? Did he treat you like a daughter?"

"Hm." I thought backwards in time, breezing through my past five years with Teacher like one would do with a new book that they were curious about, leafing through the pages while absorbing a random word or two. "I think…we were merely teacher and student. Of course, the connection between us was stronger than typical people of the same group, but it doesn't go very far, perhaps sometimes to the extent of familiar colleagues that trust each other…to a degree. He hid his things, I hid mine. For example, I had no idea that Mana existed before he told me that Teacher was his father when we first met."

Lenalee was silent. "Have you ever had people you called parents?" she asked softly, gaze lost in the bright ripples of the water. I shook my head. "I only remember a body that my memories called Mother, but even if I give someone a name like that, I think that it doesn't make that person a _parent_."

"Oh." I didn't need eyes to know that Lenalee found the answer depressing, since it was nearing the scenario she didn't want to face. To be not seen by one's son as a mother… "But I'm sure it will work out," I hastily added, hoping she wouldn't start crying. "Perhaps you should go over partner attacks with him right now, and begin trusting each other with your backs in battle. It's somewhere to start, right?"

I was relieved when the sunlight lit up a smile on her face. "Starting with trust…" she echoed.

But we were rudely interrupted when across the river, an explosion cut through the air and black smoke grew in a smokestack of ashen colors. Jacob, whom I suppose was a light sleeper, dashed out from behind us, nearly knocking me into the river. "Should I wake Master Mana?" he asked Lenalee.

"Yes, and tell him to meet us at the opera house," she replied, reaching for the exorcist's coat nearby.


End file.
